Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas

CHESTER COPPERPOT writes "Scott Berkun writes an interesting essay on 'Why smart people defend bad ideas'. He states a number of interesting highlights on smart people and dumb ideas. From the article: 'In the software industry, the common example of thinking at the wrong level is a team of rock star programmers who can make anything, but don't really know what to make: so they tend to build whatever things come to mind, never stopping to find someone who might not be adept at writing code, but can see where the value of their programming skills would be best applied.'."

Comments

I Will Defend my Bad First Post

[Anonymous Coward]

Tom Smykowski: It's a "Jump to Conclusions Mat". You see, you have this mat, with different CONCLUSIONS written on it that you could JUMP TO.
Michael Bolton: That is the worst idea I've ever heard.
Samir: Yes, this is horrible, this idea.

Re:I Will Defend my Bad First Post

[colton cummings]

Anonymous Coward: Are you really Mike, or was he lying? If so, this is colton, julia's friend.

Re:I Will Defend my Bad First Post

[Paperweight]

Bill Lumbergh: Hey Anonymous, wuht's happening. Yeah....could you, I dont know, spend a little less time on Slashdot? Terrrific.

Re:I Will Defend my Bad First Post

[roman_mir]

two sikhs at the same time?

Jukebox guy

[AntiPasto]

I knew a guy that programmed a music "jukebox" ... didn't have the heart to tell him that at most parties I went to the people just had a winamp and a folder open.

Case in Point

[Kipsaysso]

Slashdot

Re:Case in Point

[HardCase]

Are you sure that the Slashdot case involves smart people defending stupid ideas?

No they don't.

[halcyon1234]

Us smart folk have great ideas! Wonderful ideas!

Like that time everyone wanted to give a multi-billion dollar corporation hundreds of millions of dollars to make another season of a mediocre TV show. That was a great idea, wasn't it?

Oh, and then there was the tens of thousands of dallars they gave to that guy who ran a copyright-material-file-trading-site. That turned out smashingly well.

And-- umm--- hrm.

{pause}

............ good article.

Re:This extends to the rest of life

[Scrameustache]

There are a lot of people who can literally do ANYTHING, and partly because of this they end up doing NOTHING.

Well, I feel less guilty about my slackerism now, thanks! : )

Because we CAN!

[Grey Ninja]

It's simple. Everyone can have dumb ideas. It's our god given right. And if you think that you are going to pry them from our cold dead fingers, you have another think coming. We can come up with all the bad ideas that we want, and we STILL have more good ideas than the less fortunate. So I say LEAVE US ALONE!

Re:This extends to the rest of life

[redheaded_stepchild]

Yay! I can now tell people I'm omnitalented instead of just indecisive!

Re:Uhmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Your comments are totally uncalled for.

Yes, mod me down if you are a PHB type, or some weak moron who needs a complete dipshit in a suit to tell him day-to-day what to do.

For your information, some people who read slashdot are weak morons who need a partial dipshit in a suit to tell them what to do on a day-to-day basis.

Stop over-generalizing.

I'll try to help

[interstellar_donkey]

What he's saying:

As a condition of being smart, defending ideas is a natural skill. Sometimes that skill takes precedent over rational thought and smart people will focus so much on being right that they will forget to think rationally.

There, I just saved you 10 minutes of reading.

Where's my check?

Re:Thomas Edison and DC current

[Anonymous Coward]

Thomas Edison was violently opposed to AC

With all the stupid comments coming from AC's, I strongly agree with him.
Oh, wait...

Daikatana

[Twid]

In the software industry, the common example of thinking at the wrong level is a team of rock star programmers who can make anything, but don't really know what to make: so they tend to build whatever things come to mind, never stopping to find someone who might not be adept at writing code, but can see where the value of their programming skills would be best applied

Well, that explains Daikatana

Re:Why Do Smart People Defend Bad Ideas?

[zerus]

I still think OS/2 Warp was a great idea!

Ah geez, who am I kidding ;-)

Re:This extends to the rest of life

[Anonymous Coward]

How much of this post is your ego talking, though?

Take a look at his website and then tell me how likely it is that his problem is such total magnificence that there's nothing left to shoot for.

Re:Thomas Edison and DC current

[Tomfrh]

That Edison was a real bastard. Did you hear about how he electrocuted an elephant to death with AC in order to show how dangerous AC is?

Re:China: Smart != Number Doodling

[damsa]

Damn it, the average score of average American's taking Calculus exams score is mean. We need to do something about it so at least half of those taking the test will score above the median.

Re:Why Do Smart People Defend Bad Ideas?

[PakProtector]

Yes, you're actually right. God does not exist. Goddess exists. Eris exists. I have personally spoken to her on many occasions, and she as been so kind as to lecture to me on the wrongs of my Kingdom Hearts hating ways, and she has also been nice enough to play a game of Pump It Up! with me at the arcade. And man, can the Goddess move.

God isn't dead -- he never existed.

All Hail Eris!

This message brought to you by Brother Neutron Bomb of the Shortened Path of the Discordian Sub-Committe of the Committe for Obfuscation of the Unitarian Jihad.

Re:China: Smart != Number Doodling

[Anonymous Coward]

http://img210.echo.cx/my.php?image=steps9gg.png Sorry, it just sprung to mind.

Re:Why Do Smart People Defend Bad Ideas?

[Frogbert]

Asshat!

Re:Why Do Smart People Defend Bad Ideas?

[Anonymous Coward]

There is one theory that the Big Bang was caused by our universe colliding with our universe.

Wow, man. Physics is weird. Do we have any more pot?