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Comment by zackattack | Hacker News Reader

>If your ideas are any good, you'll have to shove them down people's throats

Is this true? It makes me think of Helicobacter pylori and the guy who gave himself an ulcer to prove that he discovered a cure. But maybe that "chestnut" only applies to schema violators?

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Google demonstrated superior search in 1996, but only became the largest search engine after 4 years, $25MM funding, and a partnership with Yahoo: http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html

Good ideas are different, so people need social proof. That's not how geeks are accustomed to proving things, so we're slow.

yeah, i'm finding that social proof is in many ways the barometer of a good idea.

By social proof I mean when someone you respect/imitate embraces the idea. On a large scale this just means popularity. So I would call social proof the barometer of a successful idea, which only loosely correlates with being a good idea.

cool. yeah, most people tell me my ideas suck, and then they tell me "it's a good idea" once they get adoption.

I'd imagine this happens a lot with new ideas. Back in the day, people couldn't fathom having a mobile phone. Now, many people can't fathom not having the internet (myself included) where ever they go.

I think it is fairly true... the world seems to (generally) be resistant to change even if an idea is fantastic/revolutionary.

I agree, so perhaps we could phrase it as "the world seems to be resistant to revolutionary ideas, but generally accepting of good ideas as long as they function within the status quo and are 'good' by available standards." ;)

the world seems to (generally) be resistant to change even if an idea is fantastic/revolutionary.

I would change that to "especially if an idea is fantastic/revolutionary".

In the cases it's not, it's a useful fiction, especially for most hacker types who are disinclined to marketing/sales in the first place.

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