The Genealogy Of Ideas
Stanford Professor Bob Sutton writes about the use (and misuse) of others' ideas. Not that one is always obligated to run one's every attribution to ground; those of us who have tried to verify widely used quotes in our papers know how problematic that can be. Sutton in his blog ruminates on the spread of quotes and ideas, and how easy it is for them to become part of our collective background, so that writers believe that something is burbling up from their own genius. He notes how difficult it is to come up with something truly original, and reminds us that the dogged pursuit of the novel idea or quote at all costs can have a potentially dangerous edge. Sutton concludes with a quote by his colleague Professor Jeff Pfeffer -- that being correct may be worth striving for more than being 'new'.
