[SnowHill9902]

Ideas are not free. Good execution is better than good ideas alone, true. But ideas can definitely be worth a lot.

[darkerside]

Any sufficiently good idea is really hard to communicate but really easy to demonstrate. That means you get a head start, but the next person gets it for free. That head start is your time to build a business with a moat. If you haven't done it by then, the next person will.

[davidatbu]

> Any sufficiently good idea is really hard to communicate but really easy to demonstrate.

I'm gonna steal this.

[SnowHill9902]

That phrase was his idea.

[bornfreddy]

But it was just communicated. Wait till they demonstrate it.

[darkerside]

It's free :)

[jonny_eh]

> Any sufficiently good idea

There are all sorts of good ideas. Some are easy to communicate, some demonstrate, some both, some neither.

[darkerside]

They're not sufficiently good for my theorem!

[mbesto]

Is there an eBay/Amazon for ideas? Didn't think so.

Ideas are worthless.

[SnowHill9902]

RSA was once just an idea without an implementation. Would you say it was worthless? Why was it published then?

[darkerside]

A defined specification is very different from an idea. RSA is a perfect example. I would say the "idea" here is public key cryptography. It was total genius when it was invented, and 99.999% of the world didn't care a lick.

Once it was implemented in several crypto systems, including RSA, and people started using it, the value became clear.

[mbesto]

> Why was it published then?

Was the publication sold to anyone? Why did Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman decide to create a company using the concept rather than just sell the publication itself?

I think you just proved my point.