Dec 10, 2009 Posted on Dec 10, 2009 in Open Source | 0 comments

Protect your ideas by sharing them

One of the blogs that I started to follow is Zen Habits. I think that Leo Babauta is a smart guy. Although I am  far from agreeing with him on everything he writes, sometimes he impresses me. The other day, I stumbled by his “Copyright” notification. Basically, he opened all his posts to public domain.

A few days after, Seth Godin advices protecting your ideas by NOT protecting them. Whether you believe it or not, it is true. There are so many ways to “protect” your ideas including trademarks, copyrights and patents. But guess what? After you waste all the time and money on “protecting” your ideas, you still lose. Each one of these laws protects a small part of the big picture, because it is really hard to cover it all. Seth Godin talks about this in more details.

So, what should you do?

If you want your ideas to grow, share them. There are so many benefits you get from sharing your ideas:

1. You’ll get a chance to build a network of connections with others that are interested in your ideas.
2. You may get support to put your idea into reality.
3. You may be called the ideas wizard .
4. You’ll get feedback that fine tunes your ideas.
5. Maybe you’ll make money?

I don’t think the world would move forward if we hide our thoughts and ideas. I am also sure that I am not the only one that think that. That’s why we have millions of pages, blogs, articles, news posted everyday. It all helps innovate and lead the future.

Remember, most of the time, group effort is better than individual effort.