Ideas thrive when unemcumbered by facts

So, I have this project for school. Last night, as I'm skimmed several of the books that will become part of the bibliography, I realized a few things. (The details of the project are interesting, but not essential to my insight.)

• The current literature covers the topic pretty well.
  The major flaw that I've found in one of the key books relates to the quality of typography in the table of contents. The text doesn't quite line up in bulleted lists. (This appears to have been corrected in a later edition.)
• I can work very hard and, at best, produce a mediocre result.
  If the goal was just to write a paper, I could that. The goal, however, was to produce something useful to other people and groups. They would be better served by using the materials already available.
• What seemed like a great project yesterday morning is, now, the inspiration for a lot of bad words.

I was cautioned by a friend who has some good professional experience in this area that this might happen. My advisor and others, however, were enthusiastic. I did enough research to reach the conclusion that the project was a good idea. I'd not done enough research to realize that the project was already done by someone else.
Dunno. What started out as a Thus-and-such for Dummies



via GlitterBell.com
is turning into the Fall 2010 issue of Modern Jackass.

via “Modern Jackass,” Nancy Updike and Ira Glass « BLOGJAM AND WIKIWORLD COMICS by Greg Williams