[seabird]

An idea by itself is generally worth jack shit in most lines of business. People have actually game-changing ideas all the time that go nowhere because a team wasn't/couldn't be allocated to develop that idea to the point where it matters. I've seen plenty of very promising electrical and mechanical designs that might have seriously affected their market segment go to the graveyard because of lack of resources to develop that design. Somebody writing software might have a decent chance of single-handedly creating something that makes some noise in the field, but most people in science and technology couldn't come close even if they dedicated their life to it.

You might be right in the strictest sense that an idea comes from one person, but it's a largely worthless observation, because the idea gets you absolutely nothing without the work.

[kcarter80]

> I've seen plenty of very promising electrical and mechanical designs that might have seriously affected their market segment

Like what?

[seabird]

They were mostly related to fuel storage and delivery for a certain segment of vehicles. I'll save the specifics because my employer would be pretty easily identifiable. Ultimately, it's not really relevant; this is common, even in software, where one person stands a chance of single-handedly carrying a product. Maybe there's not be enough engineering time available outright. Maybe the group can't take a risk on allocating resources on a promising idea that might not pan out. Maybe other non-engineering resources in the company are tied up with other projects and can't bring it to market, even if you did pursue it. I'm sure if you think hard enough you can think of multiple products that were genuinely good and had a future, but ultimately died because of a lack of a team that would follow through on developing it.