[AlfredSchnittke]

People seem to think we have a hard definition of "good ideas".

Actually, all we really know are that some people's ideas become well-liked by many people; those that become so well-liked we call good.

No one really has much of an idea whether an idea is good or bad before putting it out there.

Obviously some people that happen to formulate ideas in a way that is well-liked in general can keep having success based on creating more ideas that are variations on a theme. Somehow this is taken as "talent" and "proof" that they really are able to produce "good ideas".

I don't buy it. It just seems completely random to me.

If it was possible to truly know such ideas, then it would be mathematically/scientifically analyzable and it would've been figured out by now.

I guess in some limited ways this has been done, for example pop songs.

But there apparently must still be some random elements...no one really knows what sells until it does, in fact, sell.

You can't reflexively turn around and attribute brilliance to the lucky ones whose ideas happened to be liked by the masses...can you?

Just seems queer to me to do so...tautological definitions and whatnot...