4 ms·
Ask HN: Can an idea be independent (at least enough), and for how long?
I'll make the assumption that ideas are generally derived from others. But can it be such that one person can hold a monopoly on an idea for a long period of time? Suppose Einstein wasn't around, could the theory of relativity come to prominence, led by someone else? Would it have occurred around that general period?
- kleer001 11y agoI think the biggest factor of the isolation of an idea is how long the person thinking it has be isolated from other similar ideas, or how long they have sat and thought about their ideas without interruption or critique. A wild child (never knowing culture or language) is going to have truly unique ideas, but will be unable to communicate them. A 9 to 5 'er with an average number of children, pets, cars, etc with a nose down to the grindstone ethic... they might be a fabulous person, but the chance they have isolated ideas is minimal. Now, somewhere in the middle, someone that's a little out of the ordinary, someone that has a hard time connecting with others, they might have that rare isolated idea. But probably not for very long as that's actually a sizable demographic. We're talking network clusters here. No idea can ever truly be isolated. Unless you're talking Lovecraftian Gibbering horrors types of ideas. But that was more of a literary technique (or crutch). And in an increasingly connected world these more independently formed ideas, I think, are becoming rare. Speaking of Einstein, he was famously a patent clerk. That's a lot of time sitting and thinking. I'm sure someone else would have discovered the things he did, it might have just taken a few more decades and not come from one person in the same decade.