> > Realism is both a help and a hinderance, I believe. Many of the truly great things in this world came about because the person behind them didn't let reality get in their way.
>
> Yes, but for every one of those, there are a skillion people who neglected realistic concerns and never got anywhere.

Thay's true, yeah. Hence why I say that a viewpoint grounded in realism sometimes is very useful.

> And I also think that a lot of the "if I had stopped to think about it, I wouldn't have done it, but I did, and look at me now!" stories are idealized or exaggerated. It's the kind of thing where, in HINDSIGHT, taking on a particular task "must have been" crazy, but the reality is usually that, at the time, that person DID think it through and saw there was a chance.

A chance, sure. You generally wouldn't try to do something that you knew beforehand might not be possible. But even then, some people do. Most probably fail, but the occasional one succeeds.

I like to liken it to Christianity in a way. One important aspect of Christianity is the belief that God can do anything. If it's prayed about and you feel that God might be nudging you in a certain direction that you might normally believe was crazy, you might be more inclined to actually do it.

Of course, it can be misinterpreted. We've all heard of people who take risks in the name of God that just don't pay off. It's tough sometimes to know what's from God and what isn't.

> [...] I'm sure I'm right that you perceive me as a realist, but I think that's just because your perspective is from the idealist end of things. Very often I'm playing the opposite role with people more burdened by practicality than I am. I also seem to play that role with *myself* -- despite that I am overwhelmed by the prospect of actually doing all the work I want to do with RinkWorks, still I find myself forming new ideas, putting myself farther behind, yet spurring myself onward in spite of it all.

Actually, I didn't have you in mind at all when I wrote that post. It was triggered by events that had happened that day, among other things.

Having said that, I know for myself that you're not as much of a realist that I might otherwise make you out to be. I've seen what you do.

> Enough of that tangential self-reflection there. Back to the subject of extremes tempering each other out. I know some big time idea people like yourself, only WAY more so. They get some great things done, but they're largely out of control and invest so much energy in things that should be obviously dead ends from the start. People that get all revved up about an idea...for about one day, and then it's something else. One idea in a hundred pans out. That's great if one idea pans out, but I surely there was something better to do with the prior 99 days than waste them like that.
>
> You're not this extreme at all, but I'd definitely say that this situation is more of a hazard for you than the other, which is to think and consider and deliberate and research and meditate until those same 99 days have gone by before you decide to actually *do* something. Or, alternately, get so demoralized by how daunting the task is that you just never try.

As I mentioned, I'm not much of an organiser. Sure, I can definitely do things. I do a lot of stuff. But some things just tend not to get off the ground with me, even though I might be the one who had the idea. I can organise my time and spur *myself*, but I'm rubbish at getting *other people* together to action.

> Bottom line. I sympathize with your craving for other like-minded people -- it's a natural desire, there's nothing wrong with it, and it's likely that collaborating/consulting/communing with such people would be beneficial for you. But the other side of the coin is that you need those realists at least as much, however much more of a downer they are to bounce ideas off. :-)

Well, again, if I present ideas to somebody, they're generally doable. I think of ways in which something could be done, and I can tell if it's going to be doable or not. Sometimes I even plan it beforehand. ;-)

Thanks for the reply and your views. They're important to me; as are everybody else's.

- Ciaran.