Sometimes in science people discourage you from talking about wild ideas because what if someone "steals" it.
But that misunderstands several points: you are rarely the first or only person to have an idea, we are all swimming in the same water, reading the same literature, attending the same conferences. It would be odd if only one person has a given idea.
Maybe someone already tried it and found it didn't work. Discussing ideas might help to stop you wasting your time and resources in that case.
And there are more than enough scientific questions to go round!
Ideas are the easy part. Doing the work is the difficult bit.
And so what if someone publishes similar ideas to you beforehand? It's science, it's supposed to be replicable (odd incentives like publish or perish culture notwithstanding) and there is always a new angle to explore.
Science is a group pursuit anyway. It's rare you do everything by yourself, discussion with other scientists is as essential as oxygen. And sometimes the more discussion you have the wilder and cooler the ideas get
#AcademicChatter
https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/117078561059020813
jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net - So. Share your wildest ideas. Not because you want to be praised for it. But because you might inspire other strangers with specific knowledge to build stuff inspired by your idea without even telling you. Ideas want to travel to find new friends. Set them free. They might come back to you or not. Just share. That's what the Real Internet is for ;)
Ruth Mottram
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2026-08-11 20:25:47 UTC
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"content": "Sometimes in science people discourage you from talking about wild ideas because what if someone \"steals\" it. \n\nBut that misunderstands several points: you are rarely the first or only person to have an idea, we are all swimming in the same water, reading the same literature, attending the same conferences. It would be odd if only one person has a given idea. \nMaybe someone already tried it and found it didn't work. Discussing ideas might help to stop you wasting your time and resources in that case.\n\nAnd there are more than enough scientific questions to go round! \n\nIdeas are the easy part. Doing the work is the difficult bit. \n\nAnd so what if someone publishes similar ideas to you beforehand? It's science, it's supposed to be replicable (odd incentives like publish or perish culture notwithstanding) and there is always a new angle to explore.\nScience is a group pursuit anyway. It's rare you do everything by yourself, discussion with other scientists is as essential as oxygen. And sometimes the more discussion you have the wilder and cooler the ideas get\n\n#AcademicChatter\n\nhttps://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/117078561059020813\njwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net - So. Share your wildest ideas. Not because you want to be praised for it. But because you might inspire other strangers with specific knowledge to build stuff inspired by your idea without even telling you. Ideas want to travel to find new friends. Set them free. They might come back to you or not. Just share. That's what the Real Internet is for ;)",
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