Hey there —

If you had a dime for every time you saw an invention and thought, “Why didn’t I think of that? 🤦” you’d probably be able to afford an excursion to outer space by now.

Okay, maybe not — yet it’s true that we love to see people find new solutions to our everyday problems. It’s why we’ll watch shows like Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den, eager to get a glimpse at the next life-changing invention.

But what if we told you that almost none of those ideas were actually unique?

True innovation is rare. The majority of ideas are built off previous successful ideas that have been remixed. In fact, a study mentioned in Sam Tatam’s book, Evolutionary Ideas, discovered that out of 200k patents, only one percent were truly innovative. 🤯

Once you realize that almost every idea is a mashup of existing ones, you see it everywhere. Here are a few examples:

🦉Eiji Nakatsu, general manager technical development for Japan’s bullet train, was looking for solutions to reduce its noise. At a birdwatching lecture, he learned how an owl’s wings have a noise-dampening material (fimbriae) and used this as inspiration to create the “wing graph.”

💡We credit Thomas Edison with “inventing” the lightbulb in 1879, but the principle of electric lighting had actually been around since 1802.

🩲Sarah Blakely launched Spanx in 2001, but pantyhose had been around for several decades. Blakely, a frustrated consumer, built off the pantyhose to propose a more flattering product.

Yet, it’s not uncommon for people to believe an idea has to be “original'' to be good.

It’s an unhelpful misconception that stifles innovation and creativity. Just because something’s “already been done” doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.

On the contrary: your unique spin on it could be the solution the world needs.

This isn’t your cue to steal or plagiarize. Instead, it allows you to feel relieved when you realize that creating the next big thing only requires inspiration (and not necessarily ground-breaking “originality”).

The next time you have an idea, remember that it’s probably been done before — and that’s okay. Because with your unique twist on it, you might just land on Shark Tank. 🦈

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Get comprehensive guides from the best self-help books

Hey, Matt here! I’ve been uncharacteristically busy the past month. With moving back to Australia and buying a house, I haven’t had much time for reading books. So when I recently wanted to dig into some business books, I turned to Shortform.

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One of my favorite audio guides of the month, Seth Godin’s Purple Cow, summed up the book’s key concepts in under an hour of listening. I was super impressed with the production quality and takeaways. Here’s some of what I learned:

• Mass marketing doesn’t work anymore. You need to create something that will really catch people’s interest. You need a Purple Cow, something remarkable and exciting, in order to attract attention.

• Good is the opposite of remarkable. "Good" products designed to have broad appeal actually have no appeal. They're boring, and therefore much more likely to fail than exceptional products with smaller target audiences.

• Finding your Purple Cow is a matter of looking for extremes. Take a look at your products, your advertisements, your image, even your pricing, and ask yourself: What are the absolute limits of possibility? This could be giving away your product for free or a design so eye-catching it triggers immediate interest. You won’t necessarily go to every limit, but finding the right one to go to is one of the most surefire ways to make a Purple Cow.

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Happy reading! 📚

There’s a better way to reclaim your time than “quiet quitting”

by Laura Vanderkam

You’ve probably heard of “quiet quitting” — the concept of doing the bare minimum at your job to counteract stress. Although it’s plausible that doing zilch is an antidote to exhaustion, author Laura Vanderkam argues this couldn’t be further from the truth. 🤨

Vanderkam suggests that the key to being less depleted isn’t doing less; it’s adding energizing activities to our schedule. That’s because they give us a sense of control over our time — increasing life satisfaction, happiness, and restoring energy levels.

Read the article →

How Hasan Minhaj escaped the YouTube algorithm

by Colin and Samir

It seems Hasan Minhaj is everywhere. He’s the star of Netflix’s Patriot Act, was a correspondent on The Daily Show, and a YouTube prodigy. But it took Minhaj a long time — about a decade — to find success.

In this video, Colin and Samir interview Minhaj to uncover how he’s navigated the ever-changing YouTube algorithm to build a successful career. Minhaj is incredibly insightful about how to stand out on YouTube and what it takes to be a successful creator.

If you’re looking for unconventional YouTube advice, you’re in the right place. 😌

Watch the interview →

half baked ideas

by Rutik Wankhade

If you’re thinking about applying to Shark Tank but need some creative juice, we’ve got you. half baked ideas is a website with a smorgasbord of potential app ideas submitted from users worldwide.

Users can vote on ideas, and creators can gauge if their half-baked idea has potential. Or use it as an inspiration board to help plant the seed for your own ideas. 🌱

Just remember to give credit where it’s due.

Check out the tool →

Meet Dami Lee! Dami’s YouTube channel highlights her passion for architecture and design along with her experience-backed strategies for getting creative and building a fulfilling career. Whether you’re interested in pursuing architecture yourself, find beauty in urban design, or have ever wondered if the futuristic cityscape of The Fifth Element could exist in real life, Dami’s unique niche and stellar storytelling make for great viewing. 🏙️

Introduce yourself! Who are you?

My name is Dami. I'm an architect based in Vancouver, BC. I spent a big part of my adulthood in Toronto, but moved back to BC after realizing I needed warmer weather. Architecture is a big part of my life - it's not just my job, but also my hobby and passion. I love visiting buildings, looking at it and talking about it, and this became the foundation for my Youtube channel, which I started 2 years ago during the pandemic. Now, thanks to Youtube, I get to do that on a bigger scale, saving my friends and family from my long rants on architecture.

Why do you create? Who is your content for?

I started making very specific content for architecture students and interns, but now, I would say it's for anyone with an interest in architecture and the urban environment. I find that there are many concepts in architecture that haven't translated to the masses, which is probably a fault of our profession. I try to break down some of these concepts in an engaging and entertaining way, using my own projects, other people's projects or even movies. I try to show the process and the thinking behind a project, rather than focusing on the end product. Long form content is great for this.

The biggest lesson you’ve learned since you began creating content?

People love stories. Some people are naturally good at this, I am really not. I used to spend endless hours agonizing over graphic details and the visuals. There are videos that I poured a crazy amount of time and resources into, to create a high production value video, that didn't perform well. Over time, after making about 100 videos, I started to see a recurring pattern in the videos. The ones that seemed to perform the best were the ones that had a good hook and storyline, and an emotional element that people can engage with. Even when you're talking about the most pragmatic building, crafting an interesting story around it can get people watching.

One thing you wish you knew before you started?

I wish I had started outsourcing earlier. It takes a lot of time and trial and error to find and train an editor, in fact, I started with baby steps, like outsourcing cutting raw footage, but I think that investment is worth it. It allowed me to spend more time on things like ideation, research, and writing, and output content more consistently. I still have a high level of control, but rarely edit the full video myself. Now research and writing is the bottleneck, and I'm in the process of working with researchers. We'll see how that goes!

In one to two sentences, what’s one piece of advice you’d give to aspiring creators or self-development nerds?

Just keep making things!

What mythical creature would improve the world the most if it existed?

Having a few Hobbits in every neighborhood, family or friend group would probably make the world a generally happier place.

Written by Alice Lemée

Edited by Matt D'Avella & Kerstin Sheppard