The increasing challenge of Originality

It wasn’t so long ago that you could fake originality.  You could steal someone else’s technique, or pawn off someone else’s thought as your own.  You could steal someone else’s ideas, their essays etc.  And you could do this virtually unchallenged by grabbing an older book or magazine and stealing a lot of content.

Now, plagiarism can be detected via Google in a couple quick searches.  Try blogging about something that isn’t your original thought and wait for the flames to roll into your comments.   Albert Einstein said “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”  Well Al, it isn’t so easy anymore.

And obviously this isn’t a bad thing.  People have to work harder to come up with new ideas that pull us forward.  And if you want to stand out, you need to accomplish something outstanding…

It’s not enough being derivative anymore.  I take it as a personal challenge. 

Find a way out of the herd.  Find a way upwards.