My favourite thing about the internet is most of what you think of has already been thought of.
You want to write a blog? Supporting thesis and arguments exist. You want to code a tool? You will find an open source Github repo. Validate ideas? Reddit threads from 5 years ago already decoded the pros and cons. Learn a skill? Someone has documented their first steps. Write a speech? There are 100s of directories with 1000s of templates.
There was a time I was married to the idea of innovation. That everything I do has to be unique, new and something people have never seen before.
Time has taught me to trust all the great minds before me. They have built beautiful things for us to build on top of and even to disagree with.
There’s enough substance in the universe. Books, Reddit, niche forums, YouTube, LLMs, all at your fingertips to integrate your experiences with.
Example, I could have built the website you are on from zero. But I found an open-source repo that solves for one of my core features (Obs-style graphic view).
Now that it has been solved, I can build other features. There is absolutely zero need to obsess over building it myself, unless the point of building is to enjoy building.
“Originality is undetected plagiarism.”
William Ralph Inge
It’s not about becoming a thief who doesn’t get caught, but making the most of what the world already has to offer to you. Then build on top of it. Upside is you find loopholes to improve. Downside is you learn from systems that are proven and validated.
I am not dismantling truly original ideas or build from scratch mindset. All I am saying is it’s easier to go from 1-10 because 0-1 is already done for you in most cases.
Shift focus from “I want to do something no one has ever done” to “What’s an exciting idea and how can I make it better than it already is?”
You will notice the resourcefulness of our tiny planet.