"There will always be someone with a better idea!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Never rest on your laurels. Never become complacent. Never presume that your idea is the best idea, the only idea, the greatest idea.
Because there is always another better one!
People who spend time with me come to realize that at any given instant, I might suddenly stop in the middle of a conversation, grab my phone, and type in a phrase that they had just uttered. Such was the case during a round of golf yesterday when I heard this gem of an 'idea.' Thanks, Nick!
Indeed, there is always someone with a better idea, and if you don't accept that, you can slide into the dreaded sin of complacency, the error of ego, and the mistake of misbelief. Always keep in mind that at its core, innovation and creativity - the core of idea generation - are boundless, as the human mind is capable of generating an infinite number of ideas. There's always the potential for a better one!
Not only that, but different perspectives and life experiences shape how people view problems and solutions - and hence the ideas they might have. With over 7 billion people on the planet, it's statistically likely that someone will have a unique or superior idea. The numbers simply work against you. Not only that, but our connected world has led to massive growth in the opportunities for idea generation. I have long called the Internet and social networking the 'big global idea machine.' It has become a big library of ideas, serious and offbeat, that is always available for exploration and discovery. Call it 'idea mining.'
Science itself is an increasingly advanced idea generation machine - as science accelerates, so too does scientific discovery, and the opportunity for the discovery of new ideas. Add the fact that AI is constantly advancing and that some are learning to master its new knowledge-generation capabilities, and the fact is that it too will lead to a flood of new ideas.
Then there is the overall recognition that all of us should just struggle daily to be different - we should celebrate and advance our diversity of thought rather than trying to place it within boundaries. In that context, the ability of some of us to break free, challenge the status quo, and think differently will allow us to get a better idea than others - if they remain constricted, their ideas chained up behind a barrier of sameness.
My favorite idea about ideas? Collaborative thinking! If I have an idea and you have an idea, we have two ideas. But if we combine our ideas, we have magic! Let's build on what we have - we can build upon, combine, or improve our existing ideas, leading to something better! Collaboration and connectivity of like-minded people can lead to ideas that are better than any single person's idea.
The fact is, the world can never be too short of great ideas, so you should never become complacent in thinking that your great idea is the last great idea, the only great idea, or the best great idea!
Futurist Jim Carroll is fully aware that it is kind of rude to stop in the middle of a conversation to save a great idea, but he also knows that great ideas are fleeting.