michael_nielsen

Will a brilliant paper/idea surface regardless of submission to journal? I think that's very likely...

But finding better ways to democratize feedback might help the not-quite-developed precursor idea to the brilliant idea...

AFAICT just asking for feedback will often get it. A friend with no (undergrad) degree started sending thoughtful emails to senior

people in his area of interest. Pretty soon he was getting feedback, invitations to visit, etc.

That's n=1 of course. But in general I think people underestimate how successful they can be with thoughtful requests for comment.

There's a related point, of course, which is that most people send really unthoughtful requests for comment. He wrote very careful emails

that closely connected his work to things the people he was writing to were working on: it became about them (and him).

In other words, if you thoughtfully put in the work, people will appreciate that, respond and help. I agree!