[jeffreyrogers]

I think I'm fairly creative, but I've only had one or two ideas that weren't reinventions of something someone else had already done. Doesn't matter what it is: software, electrical circuit, some clever mechanical thing, it's almost always already been done. Even if you look at patent grants, almost none of them are truly novel.

[selestify]

So what did you do with those ideas?

[jeffreyrogers]

One of them costs too much for me to pursue. The other I'm working on as a hobby, but don't expect it to bear any fruit for a couple of years.

My main takeaway though is that an idea doesn't have to be novel for it to be a good idea. Lots of things that were tried and failed could succeed with a new approach. And lots of things that're currently successfully could be redone in a better way.