I've had this theory for a while that often engineers (or people in general) hold onto their ideas tightly and don't share them, mainly because they feel that they hold some high intrinsic value. This is the source of patents, and so on. Often, I think, good ideas are lost because they were never shared, but instead kept, and not acted on. A good idea not acted on is essentially nothing - vapour.

Seth Godin just happens to have articulated this well.

History is littered with inventors who had "great" ideas but kept them quiet and then poorly executed them. And history is lit up with do-ers who took ideas that were floating around in the ether and actually made something happen. In fact, just about every successful venture is based on an unoriginal idea, beautifully executed.

So, if you've got ideas, let them go. They're probably holding you back from the hard work of actually executing.

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