"I don't think he said they don't count"

Yes he did. He said that execution is what "counts". The way he wrote this it is fair to conclude that he meant that execution is ALL that counts so that nothing else counts and in particular ideas don't count. He was careful never to admit that an idea "counts". He's being polemical, and you are bending over backwards to be literal and generous.

You realize that an idea can be important, but he didn't want to admit that.

That execution or implementation is important for making money with the idea is also not really true: That's why we have the USPTO. Patent licensing is big business, big bucks, and sometimes there's not a lot of 'execution' needed.

Yes, of course, in the usual situation, to get the big bucks have to 'implement' and 'execute'. We know that. Anyone out of the first grade knows this. What he wanted to imply was that execution "counts" so that the idea doesn't -- he wanted to remove the possibility of a good idea. Dumb.

I fully assure you, find a good idea for a one pill solution to any cancer, and the idea will be about all that "counts" and execution will be a very easy case of routine -- have some big pharma company do the trials, put the pills in the bottles, and hire the security guards to push away the desperate customers.

"Many of the ideas you listed were invented by one person and then capitalized upon by another. This doesn't mean the idea wasn't important, just that the person who got rich was the one with the implementation."

Sure: We are agreeing. E.g., without Swan and his idea about tungsten, poor Edison would have been pulling hairs to bake from himself, his employees, his wife, dogs, cats, etc. all as a waste of time. Similarly for the vacuum pump. Yes, I would hope that Swan would have gotten the big bucks, but he didn't. Still, the idea was crucial. Edison would have made no bucks at all from lights without such an idea. Or, just tell Edison to "execute": Right! Try to sell lights that last about 40 hours! "Come on Tom, just EXECUTE! Quit wasting time looking for ideas. EXECUTE! Ideas are easy and plentiful (J. Doerr). Execution is everything (J. Doerr) and all that 'counts'!".

In my project, I started with an idea. I'm attacking a problem nearly every Internet user in the world has and knows that they have. So far all the solutions 'executed' just suck, about like a 40 hour light. Maybe 500 million Internet users would take the problem seriously enough actually to want and use a good solution. Maybe 50 million would become really "engaged" (Fred Wilson, AVC.com). A few million will like the solution enough to become 'addicted' as is common in games (although my project is not for a 'game').

The crucial obstacle to a solution is a good idea, just the idea, just "How to do that". That is, the reason the current solutions suck is closely analogous to Edison not knowing about tungsten.

How to do that ain't easy to discover. What's needed is a good idea not easy to find. With the idea, the rest is routine. If others could find the idea for a good solution, say, think of tungsten, then the problem would have been solved long ago. Net, the idea is nearly all that really matters.

Well, I invented and have the idea. No, it ain't computer science or artificial intelligence or machine learning or some heuristic or any of that nonsense. Instead the solution is some original applied math with some advanced prerequisites. Nearly no one in computer science, including the chaired profs, has the prerequisites and certainly hasn't done my original work.

So, what am I doing? Today it's struggling with some UI/UX details and ASP.NET, and I'm a beginner with ASP.NET and going slowly. Thousands of others here on HN could take my idea and core code (I have the software for the idea in good shape) and totally blow me out of the water on the rest of the software. But, I've kept the idea confidential! So, I've got time for my slow progress with ASP.NET! Again, 99 44/100% of what matters is just the idea.

So, right, I'm not giving away the idea, and my intention is to keep the idea confidential, in software well protected in a server farm and get the big bucks for myself.