What do you do with an idea?
Apr. 30th, 2003 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikI have lots of ideas. I have ideas all the time. Indeed, this is a constant state, and for the most part I don't take it particularly seriously. Ideas without the work behind them to make them into something aren't worth much, yes?
But sometimes I get kind of attached to them nonetheless.
Like there's this one mathematical model I've kicked around for the last several years (I think it started with me being bored on a long bus ride, mostly it's either that or washing dishes) having to do with how recent mutations (or new genetic material, from what ever source) moves through a population under different kinds of environmental stress.
It's fairly elegant, and it addresses some problems in evolutionary theory. I don't know if the idea is unique, though I haven't run into it in the research I've done. (Though, the more I think about it the more it seems completely obvious from what I know of genetics. Unfortunately, this is pretty much a given for a decent idea, *once* you've had it.)
Anyhow, the damned thing has sat on a shelf in the corner of my brain for the last several years, and occaisional gets taken down and polished but not much else because I'm not quite sure what to do with it. My vague theory is that I should do more reading on the subject, and see if it already has been published... And then if it hasn't, what, write it up and submit it to a genetics journal? ("Um, hello there, I was thinking about this subject, and came up with this cool idea, and well, yeah, I only ever took a couple of genetics courses ever, but it seemed like a neat explanation to me...") I'm not even sure that just doing research on my own is going to give me a clear answer as to whether the damn thing is original.
But I'm sure as hell not going to go get a degree in genetics soley to gain the right to publish in the field (and maybe figure out if it had any merit in the first place.) I really hate academics...
(Okay, I'm just being some combination of lazy and grumpy. I know what I should do. I should go do the research, and then take it from there. Likely enough having done the research the next step will become obvious. Feh. Like I have the time! <= Like that's not a completely lame ass excuse now that I'm exMS.)
Or then there's the filesharing scalability work... Which I know aren't original algorithms per se, but are a pretty interesting application. And that's not academic, but I'm also prepared to code the damn thing myself.
Feh.
I'm so lame.
(At least in the world of computing there are clear paths for people without degrees to propogate their ideas. And it's not like I really believe that I need to have a degree... I just get twitchy around the whole system.)
But sometimes I get kind of attached to them nonetheless.
Like there's this one mathematical model I've kicked around for the last several years (I think it started with me being bored on a long bus ride, mostly it's either that or washing dishes) having to do with how recent mutations (or new genetic material, from what ever source) moves through a population under different kinds of environmental stress.
It's fairly elegant, and it addresses some problems in evolutionary theory. I don't know if the idea is unique, though I haven't run into it in the research I've done. (Though, the more I think about it the more it seems completely obvious from what I know of genetics. Unfortunately, this is pretty much a given for a decent idea, *once* you've had it.)
Anyhow, the damned thing has sat on a shelf in the corner of my brain for the last several years, and occaisional gets taken down and polished but not much else because I'm not quite sure what to do with it. My vague theory is that I should do more reading on the subject, and see if it already has been published... And then if it hasn't, what, write it up and submit it to a genetics journal? ("Um, hello there, I was thinking about this subject, and came up with this cool idea, and well, yeah, I only ever took a couple of genetics courses ever, but it seemed like a neat explanation to me...") I'm not even sure that just doing research on my own is going to give me a clear answer as to whether the damn thing is original.
But I'm sure as hell not going to go get a degree in genetics soley to gain the right to publish in the field (and maybe figure out if it had any merit in the first place.) I really hate academics...
(Okay, I'm just being some combination of lazy and grumpy. I know what I should do. I should go do the research, and then take it from there. Likely enough having done the research the next step will become obvious. Feh. Like I have the time! <= Like that's not a completely lame ass excuse now that I'm exMS.)
Or then there's the filesharing scalability work... Which I know aren't original algorithms per se, but are a pretty interesting application. And that's not academic, but I'm also prepared to code the damn thing myself.
Feh.
I'm so lame.
(At least in the world of computing there are clear paths for people without degrees to propogate their ideas. And it's not like I really believe that I need to have a degree... I just get twitchy around the whole system.)
