Quixotic
Etymology
From Don Quixote, the hero of Cervantes’ 1605 novel, who read too many chivalric romances and set out to right the world’s wrongs — famously charging at windmills he mistook for giants. His name became shorthand for gallant, deluded idealism.
adjective · /kwik-SOT-ik/
Idealistic to the point of being impractical or unrealistic.
What it names
The noble, doomed cause — grand ambition aimed at a target that isn’t really there.
Example
Fixing the whole housing market with one app was a quixotic goal, but the attempt taught them plenty.
Related idea
Utopian aims at an ideal society; quixotic aims at an ideal that reality won’t cooperate with.