In The Trenches Identifying Bad Ideas

摘要

New ideas abound, but it's important to be able to recognize bad ideas, as well as good ones. Good ideas can make lots of money. However, it's probably more important to be able to see bad ideas from the start. These bad ideas may very well cause problems in the future from lost sales, lawsuits, and wasted time and money. It's always easier to examine someone else's idea, rather than your own. You can be more objective and objectivity is a critical factor in judgement. There are some people who suggest that figuring out if an idea is good or bad requires a level of expertise equal or superior to the person presenting it. This is called peer review. It is certainly true that training and experience can help. After all, it's difficult to know if a new method of measuring the gravitational constant really is good or bad if you don't know anything about it. This suggests that the highest levels of research cannot be judged. Truthfully, there are those at that level who firmly believe this.