How incredible frustrating it seems, to be a scientist with good ideas only to be shut down by the unpredictability of the physical world

I suppose a better approach may be to instead of ask “can I do X?”, ask “why does Y happen?” guided by one’s natural curiosity, and the answers that come should naturally yield questions like “can I do X” from a better understanding of the world. These can I do X’s should have a way higher likelihood of success, while also being way less frequent.

The same goes for startups. Why do companies succeed? Then going from that to can I make a successful company?