I’m not that interested in other people’s ideas.
Don’t get me wrong. I spent many years fascinated by the
many and varied ways that humans become creative creatures on this planet. I
worshiped at the altar of other people’s ideas. I ate other people’s ideas for
breakfast, lunch and dinner. I made myself out of them.
Eventually, I noticed that other people’s ideas started to
sound a lot like the same ideas, put a different way. The time it took to sift
through all the ideas that were the same-with-a-twist began to outweigh any
benefit I was receiving from continuing to seek in that way.
So I stopped, organically, almost without noticing. I
stopped reading blogs, articles and books related to my areas of interest,
except for quick bits of research to support a theory or practice. I lost the habit of striving to learn. In the space
I accidentally created, I realized:
I don’t need new ideas. I need to work the ideas I already
have.
Contemplate them, practice them, test and try them, over time and in real life, with the limited time and energy available, and see what they mean in light of who I am. I need to figure my own shit out.
This is true for me, so it could be true for anyone.
The ideas I’ve already taken in could take the rest of my
lifetime to work with, to really get them, to get good at combining them, applying them, extending them. What did Gladwell say, 10,000 hours? That’s a lot of hours for the breadth of what I’ve
learned already, which is substantial. And never, never, never enough.
There is a time for other people’s ideas to jump-start my understanding, give context for the extent of human knowledge,
share tools that can serve my purpose. Then, there comes a
point where my time is better spent
assimilating, processing, practicing, combining and trying out my own ideas,
the synthesis of all the other people’s ideas I’ve taken in, than in reading
one more management book, taking one more certification, or asking one more
mentor for advice.
If I know what I’m about – what all that learning
means in light of my purpose, or at least a general sense of the nature of that purpose –
then I can have the fun of seeing how that combines with other people’s ideas. Then there's a chance to make something that actually is new, or at least bring a twist we haven't seen before.
Otherwise, what was I learning all those other people's ideas for?
