I am sure someone has mentioned this before, butā¦
For the longest time, and to a certain extent still, I have found myself deeply blocked from publicly sharing anything that wasnāt significantly original. Whenever I have found an idea existing anywhere, even if it was a footnote on an underrated 5-karma-post, I would be hesitant to write about it, since I thought that I wouldnāt add value to the āmarketplace of ideas.ā In this abstract concept, the āidea is already out thereāāso the job is done, the impact is set in place. I have talked to several people who feel similarly; people with brilliant thoughts and ideas, who proclaim to have ānothing original to write aboutā and therefore refrain from writing.
I have come to realize that some of the most worldview-shaping and actionable content I have read and seen was not the presentation of a uniquely original idea, but often a better-presented, better-connected, or even just better-timed presentation of existing ideas. I now think of idea-sharing as a much more concrete, but messy contributor to impact, one that requires the right people to read the right content in the right way at the right time; maybe even often enough, sometimes even from the right person on the right platform, etc.
All of that to say, the impact of your idea-sharing goes much beyond the originality of your idea. If you have talked to several cool people in your network about something and they found it interesting and valuable to hear, consider publishing it!
Relatedly, there are many more reasons to write other than sharing original ideas and saving the world :)
Relatedly, I often find there is some concept I want to be able to reference, but itās scattered in pieces across four different articles/ābooks, so I find myself writing an article whose only contribution is to put all those pieces together in one place.
Given that Iām naturally more into the communication rather than generation of research/āideas, this quick take especially resonates with me. But your comment has encouraged me to post in the near futureāputting things in one place and communicating them well can be useful!
100% agree, this is the case for most (if not all) of my forum posts! Even if I do have some idea which even borders on original, its only a very small percent of the write up. If we look at popular non-fiction books, most present old ideas in an original way. Classic examples of people who do this well...
Noah Yuvral HarariāI excitedly recommended āSapiensā to my wife. She stopped reading halfway through.ā¦ āThis is just Anthropology 101 hyped upā :D :D :D
I am sure someone has mentioned this before, butā¦
For the longest time, and to a certain extent still, I have found myself deeply blocked from publicly sharing anything that wasnāt significantly original. Whenever I have found an idea existing anywhere, even if it was a footnote on an underrated 5-karma-post, I would be hesitant to write about it, since I thought that I wouldnāt add value to the āmarketplace of ideas.ā In this abstract concept, the āidea is already out thereāāso the job is done, the impact is set in place. I have talked to several people who feel similarly; people with brilliant thoughts and ideas, who proclaim to have ānothing original to write aboutā and therefore refrain from writing.
I have come to realize that some of the most worldview-shaping and actionable content I have read and seen was not the presentation of a uniquely original idea, but often a better-presented, better-connected, or even just better-timed presentation of existing ideas. I now think of idea-sharing as a much more concrete, but messy contributor to impact, one that requires the right people to read the right content in the right way at the right time; maybe even often enough, sometimes even from the right person on the right platform, etc.
All of that to say, the impact of your idea-sharing goes much beyond the originality of your idea. If you have talked to several cool people in your network about something and they found it interesting and valuable to hear, consider publishing it!
Relatedly, there are many more reasons to write other than sharing original ideas and saving the world :)
Relatedly, I often find there is some concept I want to be able to reference, but itās scattered in pieces across four different articles/ābooks, so I find myself writing an article whose only contribution is to put all those pieces together in one place.
Given that Iām naturally more into the communication rather than generation of research/āideas, this quick take especially resonates with me. But your comment has encouraged me to post in the near futureāputting things in one place and communicating them well can be useful!
100% agree, this is the case for most (if not all) of my forum posts! Even if I do have some idea which even borders on original, its only a very small percent of the write up. If we look at popular non-fiction books, most present old ideas in an original way. Classic examples of people who do this well...
Noah Yuvral HarariāI excitedly recommended āSapiensā to my wife. She stopped reading halfway through.ā¦ āThis is just Anthropology 101 hyped upā :D :D :D
Malcolm Gladwell also does a great job of this.
So should we consider sharing our original ideas even if not vetted by cool people?
Always!