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Explain what a "bad idea" is to me? There are underpinnings of a Grand Narrative in it; "good ideas" carry forth, "bad ideas" die. Evolution with "progress" an

Explain what a "bad idea" is to me? There are underpinnings of a Grand Narrative in it; "good ideas" carry forth, "bad ideas" die. Evolution with "progress" and "always better" buried in the metanarrative. Even the metanarrative of evolution as having some sort of benevolent directionality. I am not being snarky, and I am genuinely interested in how "bad ideas" (specifically what is a "bad idea") factor into the causation, as well as "skill" and "passion"?

usmeteora 10y ago
Anyone correct me if I'm wrong, and this won't be comprehensive but here are some bad ideas 1. A me too idea food delivery service for san francisco #5978978974 another online payment app like the 5 you have downloaded pretentious chat app #749857987 As someone ramping up through vetting stages of successful founders to pitch to VC firms, and reading their feedback, they are so tired of me too ideas, and san francisco solving san franciscos own app problems. There multibillion dollar industries living off off excel files with almost zero people who know sql much less the structure of their own databases, but people dont want to innovate in those industries because its not sexy enough. Even VCs are like please stop if I hear about one more chat app today... When an industry is overfunded inefficient and bad ideas can get funded too, as people pointed out in the .com crash alot of companies died, including people selling cat litter bags online, way before amazon prime existed or any type of optimized shipping or payment plan. People were just selling things online because they could, even if it was not more economical or beneficial for the customer. Those ideas died off, and good too, because we were able to hone in on real economic problems or set backs and focus on providing those solutions and we need that to happen again. Everybody needs to stop trying to be paypal and facebook and look at the other problems out there to solve, because there is alot, so I just have little sympathy for people who are failing with their me too ideas. Now whether any of Trumps policies result in that or not I do now know nor am I educated enough to have an opinion on. Reading Goldman Sachs and UBS wealth management reports this morning post election, alot of details remain to be seen based on his appointments, which people have little idea of at this point, as he is such an outlier even in his own party and has been abandoned by much of it. But it is true Silicon Valley has been expecting a bubble bust for months now, and that is clearly documented on almost every tech forum I read, so immediately 1. Blaming any outcomes on Trump is just inconsistent with the Valley's own prediction for itself 2. Not necessarily a bad thing
- kp1234321 10y ago
  > that is clearly documented on almost every tech forum I read You mean the same tech forums that have been predicting a bubble burst for 5 years now?
- foolrush 10y ago
  So given that we could quibble over Facebook and what social media is, it did come after MySpace. Me too? How many things are "me too" in a culture? All design and art is iterative, and it would at least seem feasible that they build on the pieces around them. Further, how many ideas[1] ended up hugely successful monetarily that existed previously in very similar incarnations? Hint: Think of any joke or quip and Google or search Twitter. Shockingly, you aren't the first... One can only wonder how many of those VC investors are ignoring the contexts of chance and the contemporary culture timing? There is also a cultural bias at play as well; the notion of one's thought / idea / concept as value of unique, versus cultural byproduct. Likely a Postmodern bit of theory in there, for another day...

usmeteora 10y ago

Anyone correct me if I'm wrong, and this won't be comprehensive but here are some bad ideas 1. A me too idea food delivery service for san francisco #5978978974 another online payment app like the 5 you have downloaded pretentious chat app #749857987 As someone ramping up through vetting stages of successful founders to pitch to VC firms, and reading their feedback, they are so tired of me too ideas, and san francisco solving san franciscos own app problems. There multibillion dollar industries living off off excel files with almost zero people who know sql much less the structure of their own databases, but people dont want to innovate in those industries because its not sexy enough. Even VCs are like please stop if I hear about one more chat app today... When an industry is overfunded inefficient and bad ideas can get funded too, as people pointed out in the .com crash alot of companies died, including people selling cat litter bags online, way before amazon prime existed or any type of optimized shipping or payment plan. People were just selling things online because they could, even if it was not more economical or beneficial for the customer. Those ideas died off, and good too, because we were able to hone in on real economic problems or set backs and focus on providing those solutions and we need that to happen again. Everybody needs to stop trying to be paypal and facebook and look at the other problems out there to solve, because there is alot, so I just have little sympathy for people who are failing with their me too ideas. Now whether any of Trumps policies result in that or not I do now know nor am I educated enough to have an opinion on. Reading Goldman Sachs and UBS wealth management reports this morning post election, alot of details remain to be seen based on his appointments, which people have little idea of at this point, as he is such an outlier even in his own party and has been abandoned by much of it. But it is true Silicon Valley has been expecting a bubble bust for months now, and that is clearly documented on almost every tech forum I read, so immediately 1. Blaming any outcomes on Trump is just inconsistent with the Valley's own prediction for itself 2. Not necessarily a bad thing

kp1234321 10y ago
> that is clearly documented on almost every tech forum I read You mean the same tech forums that have been predicting a bubble burst for 5 years now?
foolrush 10y ago
So given that we could quibble over Facebook and what social media is, it did come after MySpace. Me too? How many things are "me too" in a culture? All design and art is iterative, and it would at least seem feasible that they build on the pieces around them. Further, how many ideas[1] ended up hugely successful monetarily that existed previously in very similar incarnations? Hint: Think of any joke or quip and Google or search Twitter. Shockingly, you aren't the first... One can only wonder how many of those VC investors are ignoring the contexts of chance and the contemporary culture timing? There is also a cultural bias at play as well; the notion of one's thought / idea / concept as value of unique, versus cultural byproduct. Likely a Postmodern bit of theory in there, for another day...