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by mwsherman 5208 days ago
Yes, the benefits from sharing your idea greatly outweigh the risks that someone will “take” it and move faster than you.

With Alikewise, my little labor of love, my decision to pursue it (quit my job) was largely driven by the number of people whose eyes lit up when I told them the idea. Keeping it secret, I might not have thought it more than a trifle.

On the other side of it, think of the chain of events that needs to happen for someone to “steal” your idea:

- They need to understand it like you do – the implications, the possibilities, the vision. Even people that “like” your idea don’t see what you see.

- They need to have the skills to execute it.

- They have to make a sacrifice to execute it.

- They need to get the first 30, 50 and 1000 decisions right.

Not to mention, spreading the idea is a great way to find a partner.

1 comments

Yeah but if you tell everyone, there's no reason you won't create 500 knockoffs, successful or not. What are all these benefits? Sure, you could many people to tell you what's wrong with it or how it can be better. Why not get advice from more trusted/private circles? Once it's out there, you can't take it back. My advice is to think this through carefully, don't just blindly accept the "ideas are worthless" and "be complately open" memes.