Ask HN: If an obvius idea wasn't tried yet, is it a bad one?

5 points by ignaloidas 7y ago ↗ HN

I have an idea for a key-value database architecture, and it seems quite obvious for me and how could one come up with such idea. But when searching for prior works, I haven't found anything. Could this mean the idea is bad, as I think it should've came up for at least few CompSci students before.

3 comments

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mimixco 7y ago ↗

Every great idea is obvious in retrospect. The entire history of science is that of one person finding out something that was true which no one else had found before. Your comp sci invention could very well be one of those things!

Best bet is to scaffold your ideas in working code and then see if they are as practical as you think. You might be positively surprised.

nikonyrh 7y ago ↗

Even if it has been tried before implementing it yourself will be a great learning experience :) And if you think it will perform better on some work-loads than most currently existing solutions then you should try executing those benchmarks as well.

BjoernKW 7y ago ↗

Well, someone has to first come up with an idea. Chances are, the idea is bad but you'll never know unless you try.