You have a great idea, but is it already out there? Did someone make and market a version of that idea long before you had your eureka moment?. Maybe….It happens far more often than you may think….but not always for the reason you think it does.
Why? – well partly because of the way our brain works. Picture this, a row of buckets, each containing a small but different memory. As you travel through life your brain takes bits and pieces of the things you see and (consciously or unconsciously) creates “memories” to put into those buckets. Maybe just little fragments that eventually add up to a mental image. When confronted with a problem to solve our brain instinctively reaches for the memory in the bucket that best fits as a solution – often manifesting itself as what we assume is an original thought. When in fact it’s an original memory, or compilation of memories banded together by our brain.
This can lead us to believe we “thought” of that solution for the first time, when in fact we simply remembered it. Fast forward a day, a week, a month….you see that same “solution” on a store shelf in the form of a product and now all of a sudden someone stole your idea.
I’m not saying this is what happens every time. What I am saying is that understanding how our brains collect and distribute data helps us understand how this situation appears to happen so often.
We are human, and I’m 100% sure two people can, and do, have the same ideas sometimes. I’m also sure sometimes one person acts on the idea and one doesn’t.
So next time you see a product or invention you ”thought of” developed by someone else, at least consider the possibility your brain tricked you, or ….they may actually have thought of it first.
