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Supreme Originality

By Peter Lloyd

The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision some time ago ruled that there is not a lick of creativity in the white pages of the phone book. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor went so far as to say they are "devoid of even the slightest trace of creativity."

Well, Sandra may sound like a film critic, but I suppose what she and her esteemed colleagues are getting at is that you can't copyright a list no matter how much effort you've put into compiling it.

In other words, it's not good enough to be merely useful. Your work has to be original to be worth protecting. Wow! What great news for creative people everywhere. The fruits of your labor have jumped up in value. But let's not get too protective.

In fact, ideas, like lists, should be free or at least shared. We should be as free to take them as we are to offer them. Imagine a society as diverse as ours tossing ideas around as freely as we toss around opinions. We'd see a renaissance of creativity with unlimited opportunity for everybody.

So let's get started. Crowdsourcing has arrived. Free an idea that's been rolling around in your head by telling someone else about it. Especially if you aren't going to do anything with it.

What's there to be afraid of. Somebody stealing your idea? They can't steal what you're giving away. Besides the more ideas you free, the freer you'll be to generate more ideas.

And if your ideas fly, you don't lose a thing. Because in our idea-devouring society, whoever runs with your idea obviously needs a dependable source of more ideas. And whom are going to call when they need more?

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.