\n“This is worthless nonsense”<\/p>\n
2) Odd but unproven.<\/strong> 3) True but trivial.<\/strong> 4) Obvious. <\/strong> Apply to your favorite example.<\/p>\n I’ve seen this abbreviated to: “Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Obvious.” But I think it’s more useful to pay attention to the gradations. Where along this scale is your idea?<\/p>\n Here is a real example from Norman Shumway discussing the rocky progress of heart transplantation<\/a>. It took the crazy idea 22 years, between 1960 and 1982, before it was widely accepted.<\/p>\n 1 Initial stage: “Won\u2019t work; been tried before.” <\/p>\n 2 After successful experiments in animals: “Won\u2019t translate to man.” <\/p>\n 3 After 1 successful clinical patient: “Very lucky; doubt if patient really needed transplant.” <\/p>\n 4 After 4 or 5 clinical successes: “Highly experimental, too risky, immoral, unethical; I understand they have had a number of deaths they are not reporting.” <\/p>\n 5 After 10 to 15 patients: “May succeed occasionally in carefully selected cases but very few patients really need an operation anyway.” <\/p>\n 6 After a large series of successes: “So and so has been unable to duplicate their results. I hear that a number of their patients are now dying late death.” <\/p>\n 7 Final stage: “This is a very fine contribution. A straightforward solution to a difficult problem. I predicted this. In fact, in 1939 I had the same idea. Of course, we didn\u2019t publish anything. We had no cyclosporin.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Another version from What a Great Idea!<\/a> by Chic Thompson<\/p>\n The notion that ideas have lifecycles has many antecedents. Various people get credit with first articulating it. Here is my version: The Natural History of a New Idea: 1) Outright wacko. “This is worthless nonsense” 2) Odd but unproven. “This … Continue reading
\n“This is an interesting, but perverse, point of view.”<\/p>\n
\n“This may be correct, but it is quite unimportant.”<\/p>\n
\n“What’s new? This is what we’ve said all along.”<\/p>\n![\"Five](\"https:\/\/kk.org\/thetechnium\/\/five_stages_of_idea_acceptance_white.jpg\")
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