B.5.QD:9 - Consequences

Question development turns both failure and success into possible further work. It can preserve a useful construction, make a missing premise investigable or reveal a result that serves another practice. Contributors can divide the work around those identified dependencies.

There is a cost to opening alternatives. A few consequential variations and a revealing attempt often suffice. Some questions remain worth keeping until a needed operation, collaborator or use becomes available; others can be set aside after their first attempt shows little prospective contribution.