i like to think i'm original, creative and attentive to detail. and i loathe people who bite off other people's ideas, especially without attribution. so imagine my surprise when, after staying up all night on a project that i deemed ingenious-- you know, except for the little smudge in the corner, i realize i somehow missed an example in the instructions that was intestine-twistingly similar. (hint: it was not good surprise.)
i will now be forced to revile myself for the rest of the week and cringe about this debacle for years to come.
Oh no! Doesn't it suck when that happens? I swear it's magic! It wasn't there when your first read it, but then "suddenly" appeared the second time around.
ReplyDeleteIf it makes you feel better, originality can be relative. If you weren't copying someone else's idea and you thought of it on your own, then it's your idea too. It's like - what if two people, at the same time and independently, discover anti-gravity? That happened with some major physics discovery; I can't remember what.
ReplyDeleteIf that didn't make you feel better, then yeah, it's horrible to find out your idea isn't actually your idea at all.
Have you ever seen a copy of Problem-solving Flowchart? Say you have a problem; you step through the chart's yes-no questions and try to reach its "No Problem!" end-point. One box asks, "Does anyone know (about the problem)?" If you answer no, the chart says something like "Hide It" and jumps directly to "No Problem!"
ReplyDeleteI can find an online copy if you want to see one.
Think of the telephone.
ReplyDeleteBell beat the other guy to the patent office by a couple hours?
Sometime the right idea just exists, in many peoples heads, at many times.
I'd say cut the revile back to just one day and then let it go. Was it an exact copy? That's pretty crazy. Maybe next time put a disclaimer in front that says, "I swear I didn't copy this." That should cover it, shouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteyou guys are the best.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to take the low road and say they should lock you up for plagiarism (though I guess that's not an offense usually punishable by jail time...).
ReplyDeleteBefore they do throw you in the clink, I did want to commend you on this post title, which I think is funny.
Here is an old, old story that might make you feel better:
ReplyDeleteCount Basie, the famous big band arranger, was once interviewed and he was asked if he ever woke up in the middle of the night and had a great musical idea.
"Yeah, that happened once", he replied. "I had this great tune in my head about 2 AM one night. So I got up and wrote it all down."
"And what was the result", asked the interviewer thinking that this was going to be a great story.
"Well, the next day I played what I had written down and it turned out to be the last half of 'Stardust'..."
Disclaimer : I swear I didn't copy from Omar.
ReplyDeleteI think your post title is very original. And creative.
Everyone's right. You thought it was original and you worked hard at it. Finding out you weren't the first that thought of something along the same lines doesn't make it any less creative or any less a good idea. You still came up with it all on your own. You were smart enough (more than, I think) to come up with it and that's that.