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Comment by RokStdy | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of an idea I've had. I think it'd be nice if there were a website where experts from a certain field could go and post their problems. Then knowledgeable people working in other fields with other backgrounds could weigh in on their problem and provide possibly novel solutions.

I have always thought that you don't necessarily need to be in a field in order to be able to provide new insights into issues.

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The problem is the signal-to-noise. You get cross-field insights sometimes, but they are very rare and more often come from someone who is actually versed in both fields. The majority of the time you'd spend fielding hare-brained ideas.

That supposes experts know that they have a problem, and can express it in a way disentangled from their other problems.

InnoCentive and Quirky do pretty much this.

> InnoCentive is a Massachusetts-based open innovation company that accepts by commission research and development problems in a broad range of domains such as engineering, computer science, math, chemistry, life sciences, physical sciences and business and frames them as "challenge problems" for anyone to solve. It gives cash awards for the best solutions to solvers who meet the challenge criteria.

Instead of posting their problems, I think it'd be more effective to have explanations of current theories intended for people who don't understand it at all. You'd establish a single rule: the expert isn't allowed to expect full comprehension from the layman.

It would be, really, university for people interested in mental tinkering and disinterested in certification of any kind. A salon, perhaps.

Would SO work? Or would you need different formatting?

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