Share before they're half-baked

My daughter and I love to watch the Great British Bake Off and chuckle at the judges commentary on the done-ness of the contestants' creation.

Claggy. Stodgy. Soggy bottom. Caught a bit.

I sent a half-baked idea in slack, which got me thinking: are there other stages of idea done-ness like with baked goods ... specifically bread?

The thing about ideas is that they're never "done" the way a scone is done. When the scone is done, you eat it and it is no more. When the idea is done, it's dead. And that got me thinking: maybe the baking analogy isn't in the baking bit, but in the pre-oven preparation.

Ideas, like baking bread, require ingredients, coordination, agitation, and most important, time.

I savor the pre-proving stages of ideas. Finding new ingredients to use, combining them in unique ways, and mashing them together to release the idea-gluten is exciting. In my early adulthood I was ready to pop it in the oven at this point. But I was too restless to realize that I missed a huge component to the idea creation - letting it rest and rise. The proof.

Coming up with new combos doesn't matter if the dough doesn't rise. The proving drawer in the show is where the dough goes to prove itself. Where do ideas go to get proven? They go out of your head.

That doesn't mean they go into production. Those doughy ideas should be placed in the proving draws of other people's minds. Letting the idea go, giving it time away from you the creator to get worked out by another environment is the way to let it rise. When the idea comes back, it will often be bigger, warmer, more robust, and more oven ready than anything you could do with your own two hands.

Ok, you caught me. I've never made a good loaf of bread that wasn't made in a break maker. But that doesn't stop me from applying baking principles to domains that I'm better suited for.

The next time I share a "half-baked" idea, I might instead say I'm sharing idea dough that needs some proving, pounding, and shaping.