Imagine if some great idea stems out of a stupid one. Could that happen? In my University group on Philology I read about a dictionary of some ancient language by someone that got it all wrong, then received thousands of remarks, and continuously improved the next editions until finally today their dictionary is considered the number one in that field.
Granted, when an idea is a WIBNI, seems totally undoable or is just plain bad science (like many of mine have been, I think I learned a lot here with time) we should spell out the problems.
But there are just half baked ideas, that weren't thought through, and have small flaws. The idea deserves my fishbone, but at the same time could use a word of encouragement to be improved. Maybe I could even think about it and give a suggestion. Perhaps the best would be to say that I see a problem, describe it, and suggest an improvement.
I have no idea how this can be done. Maybe we just need a reminder that a fishbone today could become many croissonts spelled correctly some day.
Your thoughts please?-- pashute, Aug 12 2021 Cunningham's Law https://meta.m.wiki.../Cunningham%27s_Law [xaviergisz, Aug 12 2021] Not sure why, I pressed on two fries shy link on some other idea and saw that he writes this:
Perhaps it is better in this present world of ours that a revolutionary idea or invention instead of being helped and patted, be hampered and ill-treated in its adolescence — by want of means, by selfish interest, pedantry, stupidity and ignorance; that it be attacked and stifled; that it pass through bitter trials and tribulations, through the heartless strife of commercial existence. So do we get our light. So all that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed — only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.
~Nikola Tesla~-- pashute, Aug 12 2021 //Imagine if some great idea stems out of a stupid one// You're fighting against the tide here. Much more likely for a stupid idea to stem out of a great one.
But to be serious for a few seconds, isn't that the whole point of the halfbakery? Stupid ideas are posted, are mocked, are developed into puns, and sometimes we get wee insights into what aspects of the idea are stupider. Its related to perpetual-motion-itis, where the goal is to work out exactly why the machine will fail to operate. That (stupid, ultimately frustrating) troubleshooting is the most amazing learning process.-- pocmloc, Aug 12 2021 //Imagine if some great idea stems out of a stupid one.// - This happens a lot already - I've seen many ideas here inspired by, and improving on, other ideas-- hippo, Aug 12 2021 This is described as an iterative process and is in common use by most designers.-- xenzag, Aug 12 2021 I think this is exactly what we do here. But not all ideas can be fixed or made better, that’s why we have Fishbones.-- xandram, Aug 12 2021 I mean, this is also part of the "failed experiments should be published" argument. Looking at how and why something didn't work is often beneficial to finding a new way to look at it, or inspiring a solution to some other problem.-- MechE, Aug 12 2021 Failed experiments should be remembered and dissected, lest to repeat same mistakes. *encouraging a flawed idea* is a defeating sentence as it already states the idea is flawed.Maybe this is just a problem with words.-- xandram, Aug 12 2021 I would like to be more like [Bliss]: generous and considerate. It would encourage a lot of better behavior compared to my present strategy of straight talk and bitterness. I would like to be, but I'm not. Maybe if I hadn't failed at all the everything I would have found some sweetness in life, and have something sweet to pass on.-- Voice, Aug 12 2021 Bitterness is a daily choice that people choose by default. Changing the default setting isn't as hard as it seems.
Part of improving flawed ideas is responding to people's questions and comments. Someone noted recently that the author rarely does this.-- RayfordSteele, Aug 13 2021 random, halfbakery