Another batch of fertilizer.
That’s not a euphemism by the way, just a reminder that ideas grow from ideas, they rarely appear out of the blue.
I sometimes hear people say ‘I’m all about tomorrow, I never look back…I’m like an arrow heading towards the future’.
It sounds bloody exciting.
Then I look at their output, and it often feels so…so, soul-less gimmicky…nothingy.
Like it or not, the truth is that jobs, like most jobs, are less about inventing than improving.
Elon Musk is currently refining an idea Ford had a hundred years ago, Jeff Bezos is refining the supermarket and James Dyson is refining the Hoover (or vacuum as he calls it).
The same in our business, to quote Coco Chanel: ‘Only those with no memory insist on their originality’.
Most ‘new’ work is old work in a new pair of pants.
It’s not a negative, or a positive for that matter, it’s just a fact.
Consequently, it’s helpful to expose yourself to as many previous ‘Hoovers’ as possible, because, although technology may have moved on, the chances are you’ll stumble across thinking that will inspire or improve your thinking.
Good luck.
