Once upon a time I was in Vegas with some friends. Over the course of 72 hours myself and half a dozen friends drifted in and out of our hotel room at different times of the day and night as we gambled and boozed our way across the landscape.

At around 3am one friend drunkenly burst into the hotel room and started going on and on about how great he was doing, gambling-wise. He talked at length even as it became obvious that he was winding down like some kind of strange children’s toy. Then he surged out of bed and said, “I have an idea!” Another friend asked what it was and got the classic response, “I’ll need $300 of your money.”

“And then what?” asked the friend, genuinely intrigued.

Alas, friend one was already passed out. When asked the next morning what the great $300 was he had no idea what we were talking about.

I think about this story every time I see a vaguely defined, ill-conceived Kickstarter campaign that will ultimately result in a fugue state where everyone wonders what happened to their money in the morning.

(Note: this is not a jab at Kickstarter itself; I think there’s some great stuff going on there.)