Inventing the Already Invented

Published: July 27, 2007, 9:09 am

People always ask me where my ideas come from. It feels as if my ideas originate in my mind, in a something-from-nothing way. But sometimes I think my brain is some sort of zeitgeist vacuum, sucking in scraps of ideas already floating around the universe until there's enough of one kind of scrap that I notice. For example, in a recent post I described what I thought was an original idea for using cell phones to arrange ride sharing, thus saving the world by reducing fuel use. Meanwhile, as several readers pointed out, something similar was already being created for Facebook users: http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid= 492C5820-C43D-4B95-98ED-5466C7A92D26 This happens with most of my ideas. No matter what I write, I get at least one e-mail with a link to someone who said it first, or invented it first. So I wonder if I am actually a creative person or simply jacked into the matrix. Let's test the theory. I'll describe my new idea, and you find the link to

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