This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Laurent Bossavit. Original Post: "The Real World" Feed Title: Incipient(thoughts) Feed URL: http://bossavit.com/thoughts/index.rdf Feed Description: You're in a maze of twisty little decisions, all alike. You're in a maze of twisty little decisions, all different. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Laurent Bossavit Latest Posts From Incipient(thoughts)

You may have heard that phrase before. "Your idea sounds neat in principle, but it'll never work in the real world." This can be disconcerting. Is that person accusing you of living in an unreal world ? (Some part of me - call him Calvin - might rub his hands and think, "I hope it has dinosaurs in it, and aliens and stuff.") The phrase sounds dismissive - it's tempting to think that your interlocutor is simply not willing to listen to you. Perhaps that's the case, and you're better off ending the conversation - but could you imagine a more constructive interpretation ?

The most generous interpretation I can come up for the use of that phrase - which, after a quick search through my outbox archives, I must confess I have used myself on occasion - is that it serves the purpose of "grounding" some aspect a conversation.

If you're saying something and I make a reference to the "real world", my intent is to advise you to become aware of your feet pressing on the floor, of a huge ball of dirt somewhere beneath, of gravity quietly working to keep the whole thing together, and so on.

You may take the advice, or disregard it. It's all one world - your ideas in it are no less real than the floor or the earth. Ideas can have a pretty big influence on the world. Impractical ideas even.