3 ms·

I agree that line should be read as "they were doing something novel" as opposed to "they were ignorant".

• kbenson 8y ago
  Flying blind is one of those odd expressions which is historically used to indicate something that is somewhat less negative than what someone would assume, if interpreting it without that context, making it easy to be interpreted differently by different parties. It's generally used to indicate operating without information that's really required, but historically it's used when that information is missing because someone else should have provided it and didn't do so, leaving those doing the work without information they need. Without that context it sounds like someone is choosing to make a poor choice and work without knowledge they should have. The responsibility for the problem in those interpretations falls on different people, which can make the phrase tricky to use without ruffling some feathers, as it seems to have done here.
  • foldr 8y ago
    It's perfectly clear what was meant if you read the surrounding context.
  • skybrian 8y ago
    To resurrect a dead metaphor, from an aviation point of view, "flying blind" (VFR into IMC such as flying into a cloud when not flying on instruments) is a very dangerous situation that everyone is trained to avoid. If the weather is bad enough then you stay on the ground.
    • kbenson 8y ago
      I agree, it's not a situation a sane person chooses to be in when given an alternative, but sometimes it's unavoidable, and I think that implication is part of the common context it's supposed to carry (but is easily lost when reading it literally).