

The Quickest Way to Be Unique - ziadbc
http://hangger.com/posts/197

======
shubber
Forging ahead into a problem space without understanding the contributions of
others has three possible outcomes:

* Brilliance! You produce something wonderful, un-derivative, and that you otherwise would never have hit upon

* Convergence: you re-invent a wheel. Maybe you re-invent a wheel that was being overlooked, but nevertheless, someone has been here before.

* Drek! Your uneducated stab in the dark results in results that are unaesthetic, unproductive, unenlightened and unloved.

And, realistically, that list is in increasing order of likelyhood. I think
there's a lot to be said for playing around before you go out and check on
what others have done, but I wouldn't ship that uniqueness.

~~~
ziadbc
You make a valid point which I alluded to about how being unique might not be
the most likely path to success.

It is really striking the balance between originality and having a pulse on
the 'problem space' that is the the hard part.

~~~
shubber
And _that's_ the profound comment, I think.

------
swombat
_Don't copy ideas, don't ask for opinions, embrace randomness._

On the contrary. Copy (great) ideas as much as you can. Learn from the masters
- many masters. Then, eventually, you'll be not just unique, but actually good
too. Being unique because you completely, totally suck in some original way is
not worth doing.

Interestingly, your example:

 _Eventually, you'll borrow concepts seen elsewhere, and incorporate some of
the best ones. But similar to musicians who find 'their sound' while playing
their mastered instrument, you'll find a unique signature style that comes
through in your own work._

Is actually a counter-example. Most musicians become unique from copying other
people for years, or even decades.

------
toast76
Whilst I get what the author is trying to say, I strongly disagree.

Ignorance of competition does not make your thought original, it just makes
you ignorant of the competition. It suggests that any thought you have in
isolation is by definition "unique". But unfortunately that's not the case.
How many times have you said to a friend, "You know what would be awesome?!?!
If we built <blah>", and they say, "oh you mean like <blah>?", "D'OH!".

You'd be mad to go about building something without first testing that there
is a market for what you're building, or that that market isn't already well
served. You can't do either of those things without researching your topic of
interest. It's all well and good to build that feature you've always dreamed
of, but unless anybody else in the world wants it, what's the point?

Finally, to suggest that drawing on your own experience is ok, is just
contradictory. If you're an expert in a certain field, how can you possibly
expect to isolate yourself from everything in that field? This would suggest
the only way to be original is to only work in fields you don't understand or
have experience.

But then maybe I missed the point of the post :)

------
cageface
So what you're basically saying is the best way to be original is to be
original.

