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> My guess is that outside the tech industry, new ideas are relatively rare so even very simple ideas feel incredibly valuable.

Are they not rare even inside the tech industry?



Not really no. I'd guess most tech firms have far more ideas than they can ever execute on. Ideas are cheap. Implementations are expensive.

See how all the big firms file gazillions of patents but actual patent infringement suits between them are quite rare. Patents are seen as a defensive posture: everyone knows everyone violates a million patents so by and large, mutually assured destruction is avoided. In a world where ideas were rare you'd see patents be treated as much more valuable.


Put it this way: if all our engineering design documents and presentations leaked, our competitors would get less value from their contents than they would have to spend on the reading.


It's endemic, and ongoing. 20+ years ago Scott Adams made fun of this obsession in Dilbert. "Oh, they're going to use synergy!"




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