Here's a question for anyone out there inclined to answer: how does one know if an idea is worth pursuing (as in spending the time writing down and sending off to a journal)? I have ideas, and I find at least some of them interesting, but I have no sense, at all, if the ideas are worth sharing or ought to be hidden because they'd reveal my basic cluelessness. The problem is that I have no idea for how to go about figuring out the answer to this. I've tried doing journal searches but my fear is that my not finding something is due either to my idea being so painfully obvious that no one has written on it since the 16th century (and JSTOR doesn't go back that far) or, what I think is more likely, I'm using search terms that just aren't helping me find the relevant articles. I suspect that there's this entire conversation or branch of philosophy that holds just about all the views I do and they've got a nice articulation of my 'novel' ideas but I just can't figure out the correct search term to find this little community of right thinking people.
I suppose I could take the time to write things out, send it off somewhere, get rejected and told that what I'm doing is not new because.....and then I'll be told what relevant loop I've not been a part of. But that seems like a fair amount of work to just be pointed in the right direction.
1 comment:
This is why coffee was invented I'm sure. Grab the ear of a colleague that you are comfortable with and share your ideas. Fear of ridicule is an understandable reason to hold your peace, and no one wants their time to be wasted jumping through unnecessary hoops. However letting a novel idea collect dust and wither will always be the greater crime.
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