Recently I had an idea. Something just clicked when I least expected it – of course! Why didn’t I ever thought of that before? A simple research question. A simple way to answer it. Helpful contribution to knowledge. I began to assemble the idea by writing it down, into outlines and paragraphs, thinking through all the possibilities.
Then it occurred to me to use PubMed. It turns out that although I didn’t “ever thought of that before,” someone else clearly did. It was a good paper. So there was that.
Every now and then we all stumble upon an idea so good, so exciting, so cool that we want to pursue it and make it our life’s goal – a research focus, a project, a new company.
Just be careful that someone else might have had that epiphany too. Last year. Find out what happened to that idea before starting yours.