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Hypothetical hypothetical question

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MilesAhead:
I don't have a great idea at the moment.  So this is a real Hypothetical hypothetical question.  Say you thought of this great concept.  But you're not certain if the idea has already been bandied about or developed.  If you google for it, it's gone.  Because it will show up in the search tracking and someone with resources will steal it if it's any good.

How to find out if it's original without getting ripped off?

40hz:
I don't think it's really possible to investigate or research something without leaving some footprint behind. Especially if you do it mostly online where everything is ultimately trackable. And it's probably a quixotic quest to even attempt to get completely around that.

What's really important is what gets done with an idea. Ideas are a dime a dozen and not protectable for precisely that reason. Humans progress by freely borrowing, adapting, and exchanging ideas. It's what we do. And probably what we always will do despite so much recent misguided IP legal theory to the contrary.

I get tapped a couple of  times a month on average by somebody who wants to discuss an "idea" for something. Usually a new business. I tell them to put together a preliminary business and marketing plan first and then I'll be happy to discuss it with them. That's usually the last I ever hear from them - either because they can't be bothered to do the work of putting a plan together - or because they did do a plan and realized their idea either wasn't (a) doable or (b) worth doing.

I've come to believe planning, execution and timing are the three most critical factors for success in almost every human endeavor. A brilliant or original idea lands somewhere around eighth in importance. And originality is vastly overrated when it comes to building or conducting a business. So is genius, whatever that overused word still means.

If somebody has an original ideal they want to pursue, I think the best approach is to stop worrying about somebody stealing it. Somebody stealing your original business model is a different story. But business models are really about the execution of an idea. They're not the idea itself.

Got an idea? Gather together three or four people who's opinion and insight you can trust and bounce it off them. If it looks like a go, add a few more people with domain specific expertise and sit down (under a non-disclosure agreement if you feel the need) and have at it hammer and tongs. Usually within a group of carefully selected cronies and advisors there will be enough expertise to evaluate an idea and start something rolling. And all without making too public a hoo-hah.



Don't know if this adequately addresses your original question, but hey, I get on a roll every so often. ;D

superboyac:
This one gets saved, 40.  :Thmbsup:

MilesAhead:
This one gets saved, 40.  :Thmbsup:
-superboyac (March 31, 2014, 11:24 AM)
--- End quote ---

+1.  Thanks for the cogent response.  :)

TaoPhoenix:
I don't think it's really possible to investigate or research something without leaving some footprint behind. Especially if you do it mostly online where everything is ultimately trackable. And it's probably a quixotic quest to even attempt to get completely around that.
...
I get tapped a couple of  times a month on average by somebody who wants to discuss an "idea" for something. Usually a new business. I tell them to put together a preliminary business and marketing plan first and then I'll be happy to discuss it with them. That's usually the last I ever hear from them - either because they can't be bothered to do the work of putting a plan together - or because they did do a plan and realized their idea either wasn't (a) doable or (b) worth doing.

I've come to believe planning, execution and timing are the three most critical factors for success in almost every human endeavor. A brilliant or original idea lands somewhere around eighth in importance. And originality is vastly overrated when it comes to building or conducting a business. So is genius, whatever that overused word still means.
-40hz (March 31, 2014, 11:21 AM)
--- End quote ---

I'll try a slightly different perspective.

The idea of "noise" is used a lot - there's just a lot of stuff going on over the web. It feels like a topic in AI how you would flag and bubble up exactly when the one time a Mr. MilesAhead looked up stuff, that it would ricochet around so fast.

Regarding all that planning etc, I'd go the other way - talk is cheap and educational. Instead imagine what the "sunk costs" would be: how hard is it to do a cute little hobby prototype of the idea? Then you and a few friends goof off with it. If there's "burgeoning excitement" then you go back and do the plan for an investor.

Instead if it takes 100k just to get in the discussion, that's when it reverts back to 40hz's notes - in better years I could spend up to a grand goofing off with a prototype of something, but anyone risking 100k and then cascades more, better have it locked down.

Also, what is the timeline? A media project "just gets made", then you are sorta done except marketing and follow up. But a big business has to plan for years of losses before it flips, or else it starts with a bang but then becomes Atari in 1984.

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