I think both of you are talking past each other here. The crux of your argument is that an outsider may be able to pattern-match better than industry insiders/

I think both of you are talking past each other here. The crux of your argument is that an outsider may be able to pattern-match better than industry insiders/domain experts. In other words, an outsider can recognize a potential solution by translating his/her experience with an efficient solution from a different industry. He is saying that you need to properly understand things from the perspective of an industry insider before you declare that your solution is disruptive. In other words, you need to understand why things are the way they are before talking of reformation. This is the central lesson behind Chesterton's famous "Taking a Fence Down" [0] quote. [0] https://www.chesterton.org/taking-a-fence-down/ https://www.chesterton.org/taking-a-fence-down/