A "discovery" is not a special case of an "idea"? That is, you are claiming that ideas necessarily don't build on each other, that is, are not 'cumulative'? H

A "discovery" is not a special case of an "idea"? That is, you are claiming that ideas necessarily don't build on each other, that is, are not 'cumulative'? Here is the hidden point in this discussion: The article and much of information technology entrepreneurship want to say that the 'idea' is some, say, Facebook for dog owners or eHarmony for cat lovers. So, the 'idea' is some description from 40,000 feet up of some business, say, category. Maybe the idea is an Internet site for printing and sending via FedEx personalized paper napkins for big picnics. It seems to be such 'ideas' that J. Doerr finds flooding his e-mail inbox and that lead him to conclude that "ideas are easy" and "plentiful" and "execution is everything". Doerr, and the article, are not thinking of tungsten for electric lights, Reed-Solomon codes for CDs, or F = ma as 'ideas' or any such ideas as important for business. That's DUMB.