Comments on: Musing about how people find things out

By: Christopher Tottier

Christopher Tottier — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 08:12:30 +0000

Imagine that! The best coffee in the world is from civet crap. As I mention in my blog, this is only edible because the inner bean of the berry is not even digested. But still, can you imagine telling your friends that you drank coffee from civet crap?

By: Shefaly

Shefaly — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:38:50 +0000

Might it have something to do with the fact that some animal droppings look like coffee beans? So it might have been serendipity.

By: Christmas Cheer | Ramblings And Musings

Christmas Cheer | Ramblings And Musings — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:01:36 +0000

[...] JP musing about how people find things out (good read) [...]

By: JP

JP — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:55:10 +0000

@john but wasn’t there a clue there somewhere on the ground? like a whole bunch of animal droppings carefully enclosing said beans. Take a look at this picture and you will understand what I mean.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SUC58185.JPG

By: John Dodds

John Dodds — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:26:43 +0000

Easier to use beans you find on the ground than have to climb the tree to get them. The taste is a red herring of course beause, in the absence of Starbucks back in the day, they had no idea they were drinking great coffee resulting from the civet’s bean selection – it was just convenient coffee.

By: JP

JP — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:05:08 +0000

Lars, as I grow older I find I learn more by observing just how often something that’s routine on the surface is “non-obvious” under the surface.

It’s like the old meringue question posed to me by an old colleague, Russ Goring. First you take an egg and throw away the yellow while everyone else throws away the white. Then you add sugar while everyone else adds salt. Finally you shake it and bake it while others boil it and fry it. Now that is innovation. A meringue moment, as I wrote about some years ago.

By: JP

JP — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:02:24 +0000

great site, roopinder. thanks

By: rs

rs — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:57:44 +0000

JP – might find http://entitea.com/ useful.

I can’t remember where I read it – but most genius concoctions usually come from mistakes, though I might be worried if I has mistakenly taken animal excrements thinking it was coffee. Having said that – good for the person who did end up picking the right animal excrements :)

By: Lars Plougmann

Lars Plougmann — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:38:49 +0000

I love the question “how did they come up with that?” So many things that we take for granted are non-obvious. Even tea. After visiting a tea factory in Indonesia I realised that what I thought was a simple product of nature is the product of a non-obvious production process.

By: Rod

Rod — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:53:44 +0000

A truly interesting question. My guess entry is that given enough time and hunger just about anything in the universe of culinary possibilities will be discovered.