Peter Thiel has a famous Venn diagram with two circles: "good idea" and "sounds like a bad idea". He says that the best opportunities fall in the overlap between the two circles.
Calling an effort a project (or even, an experiment) helps free us up to be more flexible and receptive to the market, and removes a bit of our personal identity from the mix. Sam's great point is for a "project" we're more likely to pursue an idea inside the magic overlap zone of Thiel's diagram
Here's a picture of the diagram:
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-venn-diagram-shows-why-s...
Calling an effort a project (or even, an experiment) helps free us up to be more flexible and receptive to the market, and removes a bit of our personal identity from the mix. Sam's great point is for a "project" we're more likely to pursue an idea inside the magic overlap zone of Thiel's diagram