And blogging half-finished idea on the internet is exactly what one shouldn’t do if one is worried about committing controversial ideas to print.
In case this is why you don’t tend to talk about your ideas in public either, except in terse (and sometimes cryptic) comments or in fully polished papers, I wanted to note that I’ve never had a cause to regret blogging (or posting to mailing lists) any of my half-finished ideas. As long as your signal to noise ratio is fairly high, people will remember the stuff you get right and forget the stuff you get wrong. The problem I see with committing ideas to print (as in physical books) is that books don’t come with comments attached pointing out all the parts that are wrong or questionable.
In case this is why you don’t tend to talk about your ideas in public either, except in terse (and sometimes cryptic) comments or in fully polished papers, I wanted to note that I’ve never had a cause to regret blogging (or posting to mailing lists) any of my half-finished ideas. As long as your signal to noise ratio is fairly high, people will remember the stuff you get right and forget the stuff you get wrong. The problem I see with committing ideas to print (as in physical books) is that books don’t come with comments attached pointing out all the parts that are wrong or questionable.