Do you get offended when someone outside your area suggests an idea?

I don't get offended even a little. An outsider can very often provide a perspective and insights that are valuable and invisible to insiders, so I value their observations.

Most of the ideas are stupid. In theory one should be patient and listen so they catch that one in a hundred good idea. In practice it's difficult. Perhaps the best you can hope to do is be pleasant.

I choose to be amused. I mean, in software, so much is cyclical, it's not even that most ideas have already been tried, it's the number of times it's been tried. Or the idea is like 'what if we used AI to magically decide what to do'. I have heard some good ideas that would unfortunately be a ton of work and have a small audience, so the effort doesn't seem worth the possible reward.

The most fun idea pitch I had was when someone pitched a solution to me which was something I actually have a patent on. So like seconds into the pitch, I'm like 'oh yeah, I have a patent for that; we tried it, it didn't work' that made my day and continues to provide me amusement for many years. Although, there is a company that commercialized it, so clearly I missed something or tried it at the wrong time / with the wrong platform or the wrong group of users.

Depends. If you're from "outside", and you want to drop off an idea, I'll probably listen. Sure, 95-99% of the time it doesn't work, but there's an occasional interesting idea there.

But if you have an idea, and you won't shut up about it, even when I tell you the problems with it, and you keep going as if you're the one who knows how it is, when you actually don't what you're talking about... I get impatient fairly quickly in that situation. If you listen, sure, I'll explain. If you will only talk and not listen, well, we're done as soon as I can gracefully end the conversation. If you won't stop when I try, the conversation ends more abruptly and less gracefully.

The most congenial developer can turn into an uptight edge lord in "certain circumstances". This presents itself in ideologies spanning from favorite editor to language to stack or platform, etc.

We have gotten more tolerant and versatile as a whole no doubt, though highly opinionated still lurks beneath our surfaces.

As for this phenomenon directly, there is also the tendency for an outsider to pick up on and point out characteristics which an insider (overly familiar with their own work) might overlook.

This outsider effect is real and may offend the sensitive. For some emotional intelligence takes time to respond.

Not a software person but I am in a senior person in a specialized field.

No, I don't get offended. Their ideas are often fatally flawed or "not even wrong" (idiom that means the idea approaches the nonsensical). Or their ideas are great and have already been implemented in contexts which make sense.

I find my field very interesting and fun to talk about, so I don't mind it at all. Thoughtful people seem pleased if you give them consideration and talk through what conditions would need to exist to make their idea viable.

I am getting pitched random things all the time, never considered to get offended. Today I try to give basic honest critique most of the time.

Not usually. I tend to either appreciate their 'blank slate' viewpoint and at best am able to transform it into something useful in the domain. More often they don't appreciate the details (or fundamentals) and I might say something polite to indicate it's not feasible. If they persist, I'll just move on without addressing their (repeated and uninformed follow-ups). If it's someone close to me, I'll get very annoyed and probably make some kind of noise to indicate that.

One thing that I find happens more often is that if I've been asked to look into something (that I know very well), I'll be doing that and the person will keep interrupting and derailing the process as I try to do what needs to be done and carry on a conversation to indicate why their input is not helpful/useful. If it gets really bad, I'll just stop and resume later. Maybe over time if they really want things fixed they'll let it proceed smoothly in one go.

Not offended, and I do my best to be charitable and understand what they are trying to accomplish. Anyone engaged and thinking is a beacon of light in this world.

I do think that it is a character trait in a lot of people that after they have built up domain expertise, it is a threat to their ego if someone else starts ideating in their domain.

Working in different fields, but always coming back to the help desk position. I find that there is sometimes a nugget of new insight if you brush away the chaff of not so great ideas.

I like hearing different thoughts so that I can try and get in the user's headspace to see what they are running into and try and develop a new process.

I've always been open to new thoughts and critiques (this is always a difficulty with most people as most people who take critiques take them as a jab/insult to the person and not the issue/problem at hand).

Going to an Art school and getting broken with critiques made me understand their view more. As well as having proper dialogue back with the person making the critique works wonders. Emotion is a tricky thing to tamp down and to be level headed.

The more famous/popular/well known a person is, the more likely that rock start attention economics has taken hold. There's one of them, and N people who feel like they know them, and that fraction doesn't really work out well for deep exchanges of information. If you're on the non-famous side of the equation, try really, really hard to prune back the ask to the barest of minimums, and know that even that might be too much.

I tend to indulge them. After all, I do it all the time and appreciate being indulged! There’s nothing better than engaging with someone who is an expert in an area that you know little about. It’s only a problem if they dig in and get argumentative.

There are some benefits for people outside the field to propose ideas: It helps you think more thoroughly about why you're doing something certain way. Whether by forcing you to question your (blind) beliefs or making you find a simpler solution to the problem.

I can imagine being annoyed, yes. Because what they're saying is they don't think there's much to my area of expertise, if they believe that any layman can contribute just by making stuff up. And invariably it's garbage.

I would strongly reconsider my state of mind if I'd get offended by a simple suggestion. Like why and what in the suggestion make me feel offended given it was done randomly by a person with positive intentions.

Only on days when I'm overly selfish, otherwise Im able to listen with an open mind, hopeful of helpful ideas.

Unsolicited suggestions from the uninformed are unsolicited suggestions from the uninformed. Try to be kind if you can. Good luck.

I do not get exactly offended, but do often find myself turned off.

Most of the times, they have no clue that 'their' idea has been around for more than a decade.

They ask, why is it not available then?

In most cases they would not even have done a simple Internet search to see what already exists. In a few cases, I performed a live search before them and found that there's already an app for that.

When a product/service with the idea is not ready-to-buy, they would not know that there are some specific problems in the way (while I would). Far from having a solution to those problems, they would not even have the background to understand those problems. I tell them I am happy to explain but I would need an hour. Sigh, they do not have that, and openly know and admit that they would not be able to understand anyways.

They often do not understand that sometimes products or services are missing not because the technology cannot do, but because the cost of making under the state of the art is much higher than the anticipated selling price. I ask them how much you would be willing to pay for the product and there's no answer. I sometimes invite them to join me as the business partner and help obtain VC funding; their follow-ups with me are non-existent.

Their magical initial expectation from me is that I should build it, as after all I am "the best tech person they know". And what reason they then have to believe I am not already familiar with the idea, and the entire space around it, for the last ten years? Some answer that I would not know as "creativity" is a different skill than engineering. Some tell me the same for their wisdom vs. the science guru they know me as.

If someone does indeed have a good idea that I hadn't thought of before, I most honestly admit. All the more so when the idea obvious in hindsight.

---

XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1425/

Replace "Sure, easy GIS Lookup. Gimme a few hours" by "Gimme a second. Oh there! You can download from app store. These seem like three popular apps for you to try!"