Ideas are different from material possessions, like bicycles and mobile phones. Yet many of us treat an idea as a material thing and prevent other people from borrowing and “stealing” the idea. We treat ideas like material possessions and rather than sharing ideas and letting other people improve upon them we hold on to them. Seth Godin says that stealing his car is not fine but his ideas are there for everyone to improve upon. A generous as well as wise approach to life and innovation.
Ideas are seldom perfect and by sharing them, other people may improve upon them and eventually a really great idea may emerge. And this may make us all richer and improve our lives.
Seth Godin says that ideas grow and gets bigger when they are shared.
“It’s not my land. It’s ours. And no one is hunting… If anything, we’re farming, and all the cross-pollination going on helps everyone.”
Innovation is like a dance where we mimic each other and in the process invent new bolder and braver steps. We dare each other to explore new music, new movements and this sharing makes the dance not only more fun but also more creative.
There are of course, problems linked to sharing ideas. Giving someone credit for the original inspiration might seem like a natural thing to do, yet in a competitive environment it is tempting to pass on ideas as our own.Two people may stumble upon more or less the same idea at the same time, but finding your ideas copied by someone else without credit is not a way forward.
The core aspect is of course how to improve upon ideas and even an excellent idea is not enough, this is called EBNE in the Bono’s approach to thinking. We can still improve upon excellent ideas and make them even better. We often quickly judge not only our own ideas and other people’s ideas. Playing around with ideas, and borrowing, while acknowledging the source, ideas may lead to a better idea.
Seeing possibilities and exploring new ways to do things is not only a deeply satisfying process but it is also a vital component to getting that really good idea. Creative and design thinking can be used to improved upon other people’s ideas.
Copyright! Well, you take copyright on a specific application of an idea and not the idea itself.
So you are free and even encouraged to borrow ideas from here as long as you explore possibilities and share your ideas. . .
Photo: geralt
