Don't Undervalue Ideas

The common narrative states that ideas are cheap, but the reality is that most people have never taken the time or done the work to actually know how to value them.

Good ideas always seem obvious in retrospect, but are often the result of years and years of compounding thoughts and experience.

Some ideas come in a flash like a lightbulb that turns on at the touch of a switch, and others come slowly like a flower that needs air, water, and nutrients to grow and blossom.

Some ideas we are primed for, and others we go after with intention.

In both cases, the time and resources it takes to come to a great insight are not well understood, and almost impossible to quantify.

Those that don’t have good ideas struggle to recognise the value of them partially because they don’t have the experience to value them, but also because they don’t have the incentive to do so.

They rely on others to believe that good ideas don't matter to share them, and depend on the narrative to stay alive for the world to continue feeding them.

In the start-up space, ideas are often discounted for the sake of praising execution.

Execution is good, sure, but everyone can execute.

Coming to a unique insight and ideas from developing and nurturing a differentiated lens on the world is not something that can be easily replicated. (which happens to matter a lot in the world of start-ups)

The problem is that most people don’t have good ideas. If there were more people who had good ideas and understood what it takes to have them, then the world would not be so quick to discount them.

The conclusion is not to avoid sharing ideas, but is to avoid not valuing them.

Sharing ideas makes the world a better place. A world in which ideas can flow, evolve, and mutate enables progress, but we need to adjust our narrative to justify people investing in having them in the first place.

Originality is so scarce in a world of pattern-matching engines (otherwise called "humans"), and those that success to remain authentic to themselves and their art is not an easy feat - and should be valued as such.