The reason to pay attention to ideas is because they sometimes represent illumination you have not thought of.
I admit that is possible. I listen to ideas from many people, but I give more credence to those whom I respect. I have enjoyed pursuing ideas in the GPS and related areas, and many of these have born fruit. It is my job to pursue ideas; I could not do my job otherwise. I always try to apply any possible sanity checks and look for ways to test my assumptions. Having an idea pass the "sniff test" is always important to me.
If someone presents an idea to me who has presented crackpot ideas, I am likely to discount the idea upfront. If someone presents an idea and this person has achieved success in the past, I will be very eager to listen. A college friend had an idea that was very profitable to me, and so now I'm always ready to listen to his new ideas. I also have several friends with whom I have shared ideas from which I profited. This is not a new concept to me.
On the other hand, if someone decided to invest in a stock and that stock went to zero, I would want to know that that person learned from the mistake. I don't consider holding (long) a stock that goes to zero as a smart idea. Now, if that company declared bankruptcy and re-issued stock and that same person invested more money in that same company, I would question the person's good judgement. If the newly issued stock price headed straight back to zero, and that investor continued to invest or defend the company's future, then I would necessary discount that person's sanity. I would have to wonder whether that person could admit mistakes at all, or if his fundamental ideas are somehow bung. To me, this indicates a profound pathology to ignore facts or trends.
I had not planned the number, nor guessed how long it would take, or exactly where they were. If managers don't pick up on ideas, then of course the ideas go nowhere.
OK, since you didn't state that BP implemented your idea, I'll assume that your idea went nowhere. This is no sin. It is often difficult to present managers with the profitability of new ideas. They often don't see what's in it for them.
Actually, it does help the 100s of millions in China that Qualcomm and many other companies are being highly successful in China. That's why we are discussing the "shortage" of workers in China and some are bemoaning their rising pay.
So, it does help because someday 100s of millions of Chinese will have better paying jobs? My point is that it's not helping 100s of millions today. I hope that it will help more in the future, but in my opinion you are overestimating the current affect of Qualcomm. Your earlier post only mentioned Qualcomm, but this post adds "and many other companies".
You are obviously unaware of what has been happening in China, India and Japan.
You are obviously making a claim for which you have little or no support, as you so often do. Your only point, which is obvious to all, is that China and India have some cheaper skilled labor compare to the west. I already know many companies have outsourced manufacturing jobs to China and India, and that some have set up research develop groups there as well.
It's not an assertion. Our son did just that in Japan [worked for Livedoor developing software
Did your son replace British and German scientists with Made in China people for Livedoor? Or, did your son just use Chinese researches to solve a problem? I would be interested in knowing the cost savings estimated by your son, but this is not critical. Nonetheless, you seem to constantly shift your original points to make new points. I was tired of this before, but more so now.
So, allow me to conclude that your valued insights are wasted on the likes of me. I'm OK with that. I will accept the lost opportunity costs of not giving your ideas a full evaluation. This will probably work out for the both of us in the long run. As I have said before, I usually skip over your posts, so this is no big change for me. |
