The bell curve has caused untold damage to the way people think about the world.
For some reason when people are introduced to a “model” of how one thing works, they start applying the same model to different domains in life.
Just because height follows a bell curve, does it mean that intelligence does? (No.)
Errors occur when we start to apply something which works in one domain to another domain.
We often try to think of the world around us in a logical “scientific” way, where everything can be explained. But what if something in a given domain simply can’t be currently explained using current methods?
Peter Thiel often talks about how the best startup ideas are the ideas which “seem bad, but actually are good”. Thiel says that if a startup idea seems bad to someone who doesn’t know better / a competitor then you as a scrappy startup can use that as an advantage to create a monopoly.
Perhaps one of the reasons that some ideas look bad, but are actually good is because not everything can be explained in a logical “scientific” way. However when applied to the real world these ideas work and take off.
When evaluating startup ideas, sometimes the wrong way to do it is by being too logical. Faith in the future, following your gut, soul, heart, caring, love, passion all play an illogical, unscientifically large part in success.
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