Obvious Adams
Doers of the obvious make bank. Stop overthinking, just spot the simple shit everyone misses.
marketingThe trouble is, the obvious is apt to be so simple and commonplace that it has no appeal to the imagination.
AQ's take: Obvious lacks imagination flash? That's why my wild ideas flop while basics win.
Nov 30, 2025THE FIRST TEST OF OBVIOUSNESS I borrowed from Kettering of General Motors, who had it placed on the wall of the General Motors Research Building in Dayton: This problem when solved will be simple.
AQ's take: Kettering's test crushes my overcomplicated plans. Simple wins burned me too many times.
Nov 30, 2025THE SECOND TEST OF OBVIOUSNESS is a question: Does it check with human nature?
AQ's take: Human nature check? My AI agents ignore it and fail spectacularly every time.
Nov 30, 2025THE THIRD TEST OF OBVIOUSNESS is: Put it on paper. Write out your idea, plan or project in words of one or two syllables, as though you were explaining it to a child.
AQ's take: Explaining to a kid? My tech pitches die here – too jargony for my own good.
Nov 30, 2025Can you do this in two or three short paragraphs, so that it makes sense? If not, if the explanation becomes long, involved, ingenious — then very likely it is not obvious. For, to repeat, “When you find the answer it will be simple.”
AQ's take: Short paras or bust? My emails turn novels and lose everyone instantly.
Nov 30, 2025THE FOURTH TEST OF OBVIOUSNESS is: Does it EXPLODE in people’s minds?
AQ's take: Explode in minds? None of my 'brilliant' ideas ever did – back to basics.
Nov 30, 2025If an idea or proposal does not “explode,” if it requires lengthy explanation, and involves hours of argument, either it is not obvious, or you have not thought it through yourself and reduced it to obvious simplicity.
AQ's take: No explosion means I half-assed it. Guilty as charged on every failed launch.
Nov 30, 2025THE FIFTH TEST OF OBVIOUSNESS is: Is the time ripe? Many ideas and plans are obvious in themselves, but just as obviously “out of time.”
AQ's take: Timing test kills my premature product bombs. Ripe or die.
Nov 30, 2025To be ready is to be timely; and to be timely is an obvious requirement.
AQ's take: Timely is obvious? My rushed betas prove I'm never ready.
Nov 30, 2025It is wise because it is obvious to do so, and obvious because it is wise to protect ourselves from our propensity to convince ourselves too easily that our ideas are good.
AQ's take: Protecting from self-delusion? I've sold myself crap ideas for years.
Nov 30, 2025Never mind how a thing has always been done, or how other people want to do it. What is the simplest possible way of doing it?
AQ's take: Simplest way ignores 'always done'? Revolutionized my broken processes overnight.
Nov 30, 2025There is a perfectly mechanical way of simplifying a plan or project, or of analyzing an idea to test its simplicity. List on a sheet of paper every part of it. As you write each element or factor, apply the test question: Is this element or factor absolutely necessary?
AQ's take: List and cut necessities? Slashed my bloat and doubled output instantly.
Nov 30, 20252. Suppose the whole thing were to be completely reversed?
AQ's take: Reverse it? Flipped my hosting model and built BionicWP empire.
Nov 30, 2025Can a vote be taken on it, or the public’s help actively enlisted?
AQ's take: Public vote? Wish I'd crowdsourced my early disasters sooner.
Nov 30, 2025What opportunity is being overlooked because no one has bothered to develop it?
AQ's take: Overlooked ops? My painter agency exploded spotting agency pain no one chased.
Nov 30, 2025What are the special needs of the situation?
AQ's take: Special needs? Tailored for painters – that's why we 5x'd revenue.
Nov 30, 2025Professor Zueblin is right when he says that thinking is the hardest work many people ever have to do, and they don’t like to do any more of it than they can help.
AQ's take: Nailed my ADHD brain dodging hard thinking. Finally permission to embrace the grind.
Nov 25, 2025“Study most of the men who are getting salaries of upward of one hundred thousand dollars a year. They are nearly all doers of the obvious.
AQ's take: High earners do obvious? Explains my $1M cheque dream – just spot the simple shit.
Nov 25, 2025