Commenter Ben Yoskovitz challenges the idea that ideas are worthless, a view I have stated one-sidedly in a recent post: Obsessing Over Lost Ideas. It’s completely understandable that Ben would take affront to this, and he unleashes a laundry list of reasons why ideas are great.

Here’s some of his points (check out his post for more detail):

• Ideas create communication.
• Ideas Have No Risk? Says Who?
• Ideas help us be more creative.
• Ideas lead to change.
• Ideas foster communication.
• Ideas are the birthplace of businesses.
• Ideas beget more ideas.
• Ideas foster enthusiasm.

Yes, yes, and yes! Don’t get me wrong…I love ideas. My perspective, however, is that ideas by themselves have little worth from a “results” perspective. An idea that stays in my head just takes up space, so either I tell someone about it (useful!) or I do something with it (world changing!)

Ideas that Make Me Itch

The scenario that irks me is when someone believes that being “the original idea-haver” is an entitlement, and that anyone who actually goes and does something with it is ripping them off. When I used to be a teaching assistant for graphic design students, I would occassionally have to resolve complains that “Student B is ripping off my idea!” It usually came down to something like this:

“Dave, did you see Student B’s work?” “Yes, Student A. What about it?” “She’s totally ripping off my design!” “Really? Tell me more.” “See how I’m using circular elements here on my layout? She’s…” and here the student would lower his voice, humbled by the ethical sins he was about to expose, “…she’s also using circles! Like me! You have to stop this! It’s not fair!”

The thought that would go through my mind was, “What, did you invent the circle? Are you the first person to put it in a design? Sheesh!” I would usually tell them something that the circle is a pretty basic element, and it was how you really used it that would make a difference…look, there’s so many other ways you can combine size, tone, image, etc to make a completely different look that blows away “The Circle Stealer”, who would happily go on with her business learning instead of, you know, looking over her shoulder.

Then there’s the scenario where someone believes in idea-work equivalency; that is, having the idea in the first place entitles one to claim credit for all the work that was done to make it happen. Their argument is, “Hey, you wouldn’t have been able to do anything without my idea, so really everything you’ve done based on it belongs to me.” While this perhaps is true (and this is when I wish I’d studied Rhetoric in college), it’s also incredibly disrespectful to the people who got off their asses and did the work. I have a particularly strong allergic reaction to people like this.

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