Albert Einstein was once quoted as saying if at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.
Absurd indeed.
When I first started my work on Cable-Propelled Transit (CPT), I hid it from everyone. I knew it was an absurd idea and the last thing I wanted to get tagged as was that lunatic who thinks we should use ski-lifts for transit.
I didn’t even tell my girlfriend, and I tell her everything.
It was only after intense digging through obscure research that I realized the idea wasn’t absurd at all. In fact, it wasn’t even my idea; CPT had been implemented successfully in several different places.
Was the idea unique? Totally. Absurd? Not at all.
Suddenly, there was hope.