Inference

Found this Gladwell article via HN.

In the Air

It gets you thinking about the process of generating new ideas and our romantic notion of it. We would like to believe that ideas are a result of some flash of genius or that it takes people with extraordinary talents to generate them. We celebrate most ideas as if they were some sort of an incredible individual feat.

The examples were so legion that Stigler declared the existence of Stigler’s Law: “No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer.” There are just too many people with an equal shot at those ideas floating out there in the ether. We think we’re pinning medals on heroes. In fact, we’re pinning tails on donkeys.

In the Air

This disparity between what we believe ideas are and what they are really worth is visible in the entrepreneurial space as well. We fantasize about the “million dollar idea” when we really should be focussing on the importance of execution and persistence.