This is not directly addressing your point, just inspired by it:
If you make a private Slack channel, how will other potentially valuable members know there is something they should desire to join? I mean, at this moment we would be drawing on the knowledge existing outside the channel, but a few years later, to the outside world your private Slack channel would seem like some kind of a black hole, where smart people disappear and you never hear about them again.
Of course, unless there is also some kind of output—for example a blog without a comment section, where the members of the private Slack sometimes publish their wisdom—that other people can see. Now it’s about convincing the people on the channel that they should once in a while publish an article for the outside world, inside of just debating comfortably within their bubble.
Now a more direct answer:
Yes, it’s true that sometimes a very simple plan, executed well, has great value, while a grand design may be ruined by an unforeseen but fatal flaw. I still believe that, statistically speaking, doing some work upfront is a signal of being serious about something.
Like, there are two different issues here: (1) whether your plan will work well, on condition that people will join you, and (2) whether you can convince people about it, so they actually will join you. You could easily succeed in the first step and fail in the second one. Being a respected celebrity can make the second step easier. Doing some work upfront is solving the second step the hard way.
This is not directly addressing your point, just inspired by it:
If you make a private Slack channel, how will other potentially valuable members know there is something they should desire to join? I mean, at this moment we would be drawing on the knowledge existing outside the channel, but a few years later, to the outside world your private Slack channel would seem like some kind of a black hole, where smart people disappear and you never hear about them again.
Of course, unless there is also some kind of output—for example a blog without a comment section, where the members of the private Slack sometimes publish their wisdom—that other people can see. Now it’s about convincing the people on the channel that they should once in a while publish an article for the outside world, inside of just debating comfortably within their bubble.
Now a more direct answer:
Yes, it’s true that sometimes a very simple plan, executed well, has great value, while a grand design may be ruined by an unforeseen but fatal flaw. I still believe that, statistically speaking, doing some work upfront is a signal of being serious about something.
Like, there are two different issues here: (1) whether your plan will work well, on condition that people will join you, and (2) whether you can convince people about it, so they actually will join you. You could easily succeed in the first step and fail in the second one. Being a respected celebrity can make the second step easier. Doing some work upfront is solving the second step the hard way.