Why “Obviously Wrong?”
When someone dismisses an idea as "obviously wrong," it's a signal.
It doesn’t mean they’ve thoughtfully analyzed it and found a flaw. It means the idea is so foreign to their worldview that their brain short-circuits. It's easier to reject it than to rewire their thinking.
And that often means there’s opportunity there.
It's a pattern I’ve built my career on. Over the last 20 years, at Berkeley, Amazon & most recently at Opendoor, I built a track record of repeatably turning ideas that established players called "obviously wrong" into billion-dollar realities.
This isn’t just my experience; it’s a rich, repeating pattern throughout history. Innovation is almost always initially dismissed as a fool's errand.
On planes: “Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.” — Acclaimed astronomer Simon Newcomb in 1903, two months before the Wright Brothers' first flight
On movies: “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” — Harry M. Warner, founder of Warner Bros. Studios in 1927
On computers: “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” — Ken Olsen, founder and president of DEC in 1977
On the Internet: The growth of the Internet will slow drastically... By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s. — Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist in 1998
On the iPhone: “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.” — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in 2007
"Obviously wrong" is the signature of a truly disruptive idea. It’s a tell-tale sign you’ve found something that could change everything.
This blog is dedicated to exploring those ideas. We hunt for the concepts people are too quick to dismiss, because we know that’s where the future is hiding in plain sight.
Why Me?
Kushal Chakrabarti is a builder-scientist: ex-Opendoor Chief Research & Data Officer, ex-Berkeley/ex-Amazon AI, 2x startup founder (1 exit).
He’s led large AI orgs ($10B+ AI P&Ls, 200 people), scaled AI through IPO ($17B Opendoor SPAC IPO) and operated production-grade foundation models at $100M-$100B decisions/yr scale (agents, world models & personalization). Ultimately, the proof is in the pudding: he’s shipped real-world innovation (35+ SOTA models, 20+ AI/ML patents & papers, $5B in A/B-tested AI revenue gains) across several different domains (e-commerce, marketplaces, frontier AI, fintech).
A trusted AI/ML advisor to CEOs and CTOs at leading tech companies, Kushal is an Ironman triathlete and wildlife photographer in his free time. He lives in the Bay Area with his pediatrician wife, two daughters, and German Shepherd puppy.
N.B. On a logistical note, I’m slowly migrating over to Substack from WordPress. Sign up if you want to be notified of my (occasional) posts.
