The Myth of Originality

Nothing is original.

Everything is a mix-up of other ideas.

We just don’t know the references sometimes.

Practically all ideas and innovations tend to be derivative or incremental.

Even ideas that look completely original usually start out as a permutation of something already existing.

Given background and context, even the most radical suggestions are actually incremental steps.

This suggests that the best way to have better ideas is to expose yourself to more ideas 💡

Which ideas?

The ones used by people who are accomplishing things in roughly the direction you’d like to go.