Too Good to Catch On

When usefulness and failure quietly coexist

The most overlooked truths are often the ones we’ve already agreed with — silently, but without consequence.

— Resonates with all my own failed projects ..

Introduction

Some ideas are so clearly useful, so evidently right in design and purpose, that it seems inconceivable they would fail. Yet they do — not dramatically, nor controversially, but quietly. They linger in the margins, unopposed yet unused, becoming case studies only after they've been buried.

A recent piece by Anton Howes, titled All Fired Up, reflects on the strange history of coal briquettes — simple fuel balls made from coal dust and clay, which were proposed as early as the 1590s. They burned longer, produced less smoke, and could be made from waste. But despite their clear advantages, they were repeatedly ignored across centuries. Their failure wasn’t due to technical flaws. It was systemic. Structural. Social.

This post builds on that premise, exploring why some ideas — even when clearly beneficial — still fail. And what that says about how ideas move, or don’t, in the world. What do we miss when we assume good ideas will sell themselves? What remains overlooked simply because it doesn’t demand attention?

Afternoon Light - Alexandria (Sun 20 Oct 2013)

The Trap of Obvious Usefulness

Sometimes the right solution does nothing — not because it can’t, but because it already has.

Not every overlooked idea is complex or ahead of its time. Many are modest, immediate, and deeply effective — but somehow still go unnoticed or unused. Their cleanness of fit, in fact, becomes their challenge.

These ideas struggle for traction for several quiet but repeating reasons:

• They lack friction to explain: When something is too intuitive, it can be hard to justify or sell in environments that reward novelty or transformation.

• They fail the optics of innovation: Simplicity can appear unremarkable. Tools that ‘just work’ are often judged as uninteresting.

• They arrive without infrastructure: Even great ideas need adoption systems, support scaffolds, or champions. Without these, their usefulness remains latent.

The effect is subtle but decisive — making simplicity indistinguishable from invisibility.

Structures That Don’t Adapt to Fit

We do not build systems for ideas — we shape ideas to fit systems.

When an idea’s design collides with institutional or cultural norms, it's rarely the system that bends. Even workable ideas are reshaped, ignored, or rejected if they don't align with existing structures.

This misfit becomes clear in several patterns:

• They threaten existing models: Tools that reduce complexity, labour, or costs can be resisted by those whose work depends on managing those very challenges.

• They bypass legacy power: Ideas that empower individuals or communities often clash with centralised control or standardised protocols.

• They challenge invisible assumptions: If a new idea doesn't match what decision-makers expect good ideas to look like, it is often disregarded.

So even when an idea is functional, its mismatch with entrenched systems can prevent its uptake entirely.

The Myth of Self-Evident Value

Just because something works doesn’t mean it works for others.

There is a tendency to believe that value will announce itself — that the strength of an idea should be visible, universal, and motivating. But in reality, value is rarely self-evident. It has to be seen, understood, and situated.

What looks obviously good from one vantage point might fall flat elsewhere due to:

• Lack of narrative alignment: If an idea doesn’t tell a story people recognise or want to be part of, it can feel disconnected.

• Unclear champions: Ideas that help many but belong to no one often fail to mobilise any specific group.

• Insufficient urgency: Even the most useful solutions can stall if the problem doesn’t yet feel immediate.

This often leaves practical solutions stranded — understood but unclaimed.

The Emotional Geography of Traction

Momentum follows attention, not merit.

Traction is emotional before it is logical. It depends not just on what an idea does, but on how it makes people feel. This can be difficult terrain for ideas that solve quietly or blend in.

Some emotional thresholds that often go unmet:

• No sense of discovery: Familiar-seeming ideas don’t offer the emotional reward of insight or surprise.

• Low visibility moments: Tools that work best in the background are harder to celebrate or showcase.

• Ambiguous ownership: If no one can take credit, few are motivated to promote.

The result is a kind of emotional mismatch: solutions without spectacle often fail to resonate.

What These Failures Reveal

When good ideas fail, they leave behind better questions.

Looking at these quiet failures — the ones that should have worked — is instructive. They don’t just show what went wrong; they highlight the limits of our systems for recognising value, supporting diffusion, or staying with an idea long enough to see it grow.

These insights linger:

• Impact requires more than functionality: It requires fit, story, timing, and support.

• We underestimate the cultural work of adoption: The right idea often needs the right context, not just a market.

• Useful ideas still need advocates: Even the self-evident must be spoken for.

Some questions quietly emerge from these lessons. Could more attention be given to how a new idea fits existing emotional and institutional rhythms? Might stories of value help surface overlooked solutions? Could building informal alliances be more critical than immediate uptake?

What they offer isn’t just lessons about the past — but gentle suggestions for how promising ideas today might be better positioned, protected, and supported in the long run.

Conclusion

Ideas that fail quietly despite their merit offer a different kind of lesson. They don’t demand dramatic analysis. They invite us to notice. To ask how ideas move, who helps them along, and what kinds of value we’re actually structured to recognise.

The next time we encounter something obviously useful — and clearly struggling — we might wonder not what’s wrong with it, but what we’ve failed to change around it.

Sometimes the most future-facing ideas are the ones no one notices — because they already belong in the world that hasn’t arrived yet.