I think that how seriously one should take a person’s half-baked idea depends very strongly on how well one knows that person.
To paraphrase your heuristic:
“If a stranger is unable to explain their idea convincingly and succinctly, the idea is probably either bad or unready for widespread dissemination”.
I agree strongly there: No way can, nor should, everyone listen to all ideas from strangers.
However, if a friend or colleague who has had good ideas before is unable to explain their idea convincingly and succinctly, I’m likely to invest more time in trying to understand the idea. By doing so, I’m also likely to help them find out what works and what doesn’t when it comes to communicating about it.
I expect that generally, trying an explanation on other people will not only improve the quality of the explanation but also stress-test the underlying concept with those listeners’ questions and imaginations. So often (though not always), the convincingness and succinctness of an explanation is a proxy for whether that explanation is ready for more widespread sharing.
I think that how seriously one should take a person’s half-baked idea depends very strongly on how well one knows that person.
To paraphrase your heuristic:
“If a stranger is unable to explain their idea convincingly and succinctly, the idea is probably either bad or unready for widespread dissemination”.
I agree strongly there: No way can, nor should, everyone listen to all ideas from strangers.
However, if a friend or colleague who has had good ideas before is unable to explain their idea convincingly and succinctly, I’m likely to invest more time in trying to understand the idea. By doing so, I’m also likely to help them find out what works and what doesn’t when it comes to communicating about it.
I expect that generally, trying an explanation on other people will not only improve the quality of the explanation but also stress-test the underlying concept with those listeners’ questions and imaginations. So often (though not always), the convincingness and succinctness of an explanation is a proxy for whether that explanation is ready for more widespread sharing.