Distinguishing Between Different Types of Bad Seeming Ideas

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There are different kinds of bad seeming ideas.
One bad idea is where success will result in a pointless outcome or only a minor improvement.
Those bad ideas should be avoided.
Another bad seeming idea is one that seems improbable but could have value if successful.
Examples include the Wright brothers building an airplane, which was initially seen as ridiculous but eventually had significant value.

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How are curiosity and innovation connected? What's the most important problem in your field? And are you working on it? Why or why not? Is curiosity the best heuristic — either for an individual or for society at large — for finding valuable problems to work on? What mental models do people tend to use by default? How much is an academic degree worth these days? What are some alternatives to degrees that could count as valid credentials, i.e., as unfakeable (or very-hard-to-fake) signals of someone's level of skill in an area? Can people learn to fake any kind of signal, or are there some that are inherently unfakeable?

Rohit Krishnan is an essayist at Strange Loop Canon, where he writes about business, tech, and economics. He's been an entrepreneur and an investor and is very excited to see when crazy ideas meet the real world. Follow him on Twitter at @krishnanrohit.

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