Idea Scavenging

Idea scavenging is one of my favorite activities. Let me explain. There are a lot of ideas out there, but they mostly suck. A few of them are what I like to call "exotic ideas".

A scavenger goes through a lot of crap (ideas) before he finds something something really cool (an "exotic idea").

I'm not talking about marketing. A good marketer can take an old idea, and in the "there's nothing new under the sun" sense, repackage it as his own new, innovative idea.

People who present exotic ideas do pretty much the same thing. You might be wondering at this point what the hell am I talking about. On the one hand I said exotic idea people are not doing what marketers are doing, on the other hand I said they're doing pretty much the same thing.

What I'm trying to say, in my typical ineloquent way, is that there are very few new ideas, but lots of new perspectives. A good thinker usually gives you a new perspective to look at thing. So most good thinkers are in fact very similar to a good marketer, only the motivation differs. It is very rare indeed that a thinker gives you a new idea, and if he does it usually takes decades or more untill people start taking his idea seriously.

Found any exotic ideas lately?