I think the main disagreement here seems to me to be that wei dai is talking about general conversations, which are far more often about social obligations than about idea generation. For example, business meetings.
Consider the recent episode of “The Office” where the new boss asks for ideas. Some people have ideas that are dismissed, but Daryl proposes a formal idea with a written schematic, and this allows him to get taken seriously.
Conversations are excellent ways to shape new ideas between a few people, but once you have entered that context you will usually have more information (i.e. about which ideas came up 5 seconds ago and which have been stewing for a while) and more shared motivation (i.e. find good ideas vs. get through the day)
I think the main disagreement here seems to me to be that wei dai is talking about general conversations, which are far more often about social obligations than about idea generation. For example, business meetings.
Consider the recent episode of “The Office” where the new boss asks for ideas. Some people have ideas that are dismissed, but Daryl proposes a formal idea with a written schematic, and this allows him to get taken seriously.
Conversations are excellent ways to shape new ideas between a few people, but once you have entered that context you will usually have more information (i.e. about which ideas came up 5 seconds ago and which have been stewing for a while) and more shared motivation (i.e. find good ideas vs. get through the day)