““It’s a nitwit idea.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Nitwit ideas are for emergencies. You use them when you’ve got nothing else to try. If they work, they go in the Book. Otherwise you follow the Book, which is largely a collection of nitwit ideas that worked.””

—  Larry Niven, book The Mote in God's Eye

Source: The Mote in God's Eye (1974), Chapter 18 “The Stone Beehive” (p. 157)

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Larry Niven138
American writer 1938

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