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Is there a word or a term used for someone who hops from idea to idea?

More specifically, for someone who jumps from idea to idea without ever really completing any of them.

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    Always mention the question in the body. Mentioning in the title is not enough.
    – Kris
    Nov 23, 2013 at 12:28
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    Why does the person move from idea to idea? Indecisiveness? Lack of commitment? Easily bored? Easily frustrated? Easily swayed? Opportunistic? I might pick different words depending on the answers to such questions: waffler, trifler, quitter, dropout, pushover, impressionable, opportunist, pioneer... I think you should add some more details about what kind of word you're after.
    – J.R.
    Nov 24, 2013 at 12:13

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A dabbler might fit. Thesaurus dot com offers a bevy of synonyms, from which I'd pick a tinkerer. If solely intellectual effort is implied, a scatterbrain may be it. Turning to adjectives, fickle-minded sounds fine to me. P.S. Found another adjective: flaky

Russians tend to say that someone has "seven Fridays in a week".

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A dilettante.

Desultory fits if adjectives are acceptable.

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  • Wouldn't a person who is *desultory" be a desultorer (or desultoress, depending on gender to be implied)?
    – Pieter Geerkens
    Dec 12, 2016 at 13:34
  • If those are dictionary words, yes. Are they? English isn't omni-productive. So I probably shouldn't have used that term either.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Dec 13, 2016 at 23:29
  • Every construct that should be a word in English is already one - some just haven't ever been used yet.
    – Pieter Geerkens
    Dec 14, 2016 at 3:29
  • Your definition of word is non-standard, and your tacit assumption that some subset of Anglophones is better qualified to decide on 'what should be a word' unwarranted.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Dec 14, 2016 at 6:22
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Two of the OED’s definitions of butterfly are: ‘a light-headed, inconstant person’ and ‘applied to persons whose periods of work or occupation of a place are transitory or seasonal.’ With careful handling, you might be able to use the word in the sort of context you have in mind.

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  • Yes; 'He has a butterfly mentality' is not unknown (though I expected more hits on Google, I admit).
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jun 9, 2020 at 11:11
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Scatter-brained, or simply scattered, come to mind:

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