Ideas are something I feel passionate about. I'm excited when other people have good ones. I have many of my own that I share freely. I experienced idea theft in the workplace, and I have had good ideas that it turned out were something the wife said a few days before. I might be stating the obvious for a lot of people, but occurred to me that a breakthrough idea and the notoriety it gives the person who unveils the discovery/invention to the world is inaccurately assigning praise. Please read the diary body before commenting. ;-)
Ideas are something I feel passionate about. I'm excited when other people have good ones. I have many of my own that I share freely. I experienced idea theft in the workplace, and I have had good ideas that it turned out were something the wife said a few days before. I might be stating the obvious for a lot of people, but occurred to me that a breakthrough idea and the notoriety it gives the person who unveils the discovery/invention to the world is inaccurately assigning praise. I see the breakthrough as the loud noise that comes from a rubber balloon popping. Their was the creation of the balloon, the many breaths of air that inflated the balloon, and the moment in time where the balloon found the sharp object that brought on the conclusion. Breakthrough ideas don't happen because of linear planning and perfect forethought, but they are announced and reported like that pinprick moment for the balloon. A ordinary person would be inclined to think they could never achieve such magnificent results. I hold that the common person is inextricably linked to those breakthroughs in trivial ways BUT the aggregate sum of all those trivial contributions are critically significant. Problems need to be identified and complained about before anybody works on them. People that are lucky enough to work on solving problems try many things and fail repeatedly. Those people who eventually are the ones that get the breakthrough interact with many other people who cause various thoughts to enter their head. Those thoughts can trigger the variant thoughts that arrive at the pinprick moment that we announce and remember as the breakthrough. If it was so easy for that noteworthy person to do it on their own, they would announce the breakthrough answers without work, time, or effort. Since their is no real Oracle now or in the past who could preform such acts of instant solutions to difficult new and unexplored problems, their probably wont ever be one in the future. This means that we the unnoticed majority have the power to influence the world and all its breakthroughs to come. All we need to do is avoid apathy at all costs. Apathy is what I believe to be the true mathematical zero of all emotions. Apathy causes a person to be disengaged from life and therefore is disconnected from any progress the world sees. It's a small sacrifice we make ... improving tiny parts of the world as we know it without recognition ... but the reward is wonderful. We can take heart in the confident knowledge that we are indeed part of every breakthrough the world has had and will have. Just try to care about everything, and motivate apathetic people you know to begin to care too.