I like listening to TED as much as the next guy. I have the app on my phone, I click the links in my feed, and I’ve linked to it myself. But lately, it’s started to seem a little too ubiquitous. There isn’t a day I don’t see multiple links in my Facebook and Twitter feeds, and it’s become such a common point of reference, I almost can’t escape it. Then, in one week, I come across articles in The Atlantic and New York Magazine, and I realized the backlash must be hitting a critical mass.
Ideas are like rot. By the time you see signs of them, they’re already everywhere. If you’ve ever seen a new idea and had an “I thought of that!” moment, take solace in the fact that for good and for bad, quite often, so too have many others about the very same thing. The bad of it is that we’re rarely as original as we think. Ideas come from somewhere, and though the unique stew in our heads will always give them a special twist, at the same time, the piecemeal components we’re fed are just as invariably sourced from somewhere. A blog here, an RSS feed there. Maybe the conversation we overheard the other day, and just the chatter of life we experience around us. And these things guide us and help us reach our conclusions. There’s a reason things strike a chord with us. We all share a commonality of diet in the marketplace of ideas.
But that’s the good of it, too. If you have an idea that seems a little too far out there, and you’re just a little too afraid to share or hesitant to pursue, there’s a good chance that it’s in other people’s heads too. And if you get it done, there’s a better chance than you think that it will resonate with others. Too often, we want to know something will work, before it does. So we wait. Then we get scooped, and it’s too late. And we kick ourselves for not getting it done or putting it out there.
If you’re feeling it, remember that others probably are too. Don’t wait for your wisdom to be common. When you ask the question what’s coming next, know that you already have the answer inside of you. Don’t look outside to others to see what they want and second guess yourself. Scratch your own itch. Do what would satisfy you, and you’ll find your following. If you wait to get a solid read that something is right, it’s too late. Your gut probably has better instinct than you give it credit for. As for me? I guess I’ll have to find something to write about other than TED now.
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