Some background: FAERIE DUST™, Obstinate Idiocy, Obstinate Idiocy, Expanded, and even Permutations, Combinations and Frustrations. I want to set up algorithm design as the diametric opposite of Obstinate Stupidity. To do that, let's look at Obstinate Stupidity.

The theme?

We did something wrong, and we don't want to fix it …

Here's another symptom of a Request for Faerie Dust™:

A proposal that includes (1) analysis, (2) proof-of-concept, and (3) a plan for a solution.

Sounds sensible, doesn't it? Study it, prove that you can solve it, and write the complete plan to solve it.

Sounded sensible to me, until I …

Here's how to recognize a Faerie Dust request:

1. We have identified a problem. It can be with almost anything: scalability, reliability, auditability, any Quality Measure .

2. We're pursuing a specific technology. Typically, something that has the lowest impact on our architecture.

3. We can't address anything other than this …