An attempt to generate a business idea actually fits extremely well here. I am not sure where you get that feeling from but I am interested to hear the rationale at least, as a conversation starter perhaps.
It didn't do really well, maybe due to the timing and not the subject matter, but it's worth noting that some people in the thread did take an accusatory stance and assume malicious motives from my question. I tried my best to cover my bases and make sure the intent didn't come across as personal gain, but alas, you can't convince everyone.
My goal was to get responses from people who work in "exotic" or otherwise "not techy" industries who could benefit from technology that they may know about but are not experts in (alternatively, they are capable, but do not have the time nor incentive to care). I'm sure that, especially among the people who frequent HN, we've all had experiences with processes in our lives where we've thought, "man, I could script this in a few hours."
There is a certain flavor of question that I characterize as an attempt to harvest ideas from users who respond.
I would agree there must be methods of poking around with a similar aim, in a more organic way.