I've had that experience describing the plot of a novel to friends of mine. The novel is pretty complex and covers ideas in crime, internet anonymity, memetics/

I've had that experience describing the plot of a novel to friends of mine. The novel is pretty complex and covers ideas in crime, internet anonymity, memetics/virality, and then some technical things with vehicles and atmospheric science. Some friends I've talked it through with, they come up with ideas to add stuff and it's like "that makes no sense for this novel, but it's not a dumb idea given how little of the theory of the novel I've communicated to you." Whereas other friends seem to immediately grasp onto the theory and make suggestions that actually fit with the overall concept very well, and usually recommend small changes rather than wholesale plot rearchitectures. It's like an architect coming in and saying "we should move this door two inches so that this door doesn't bang this wall" vs. "We should build this whole house as one story into the side of a cliff."