Why canonical (Mem’s note): Three-and-a-half years after the original “Everything is an idea” post, Mike returns to the idea-of-ideas with a sharpening: “I will make clear that the ideas are not ‘mine.’ No one owns an idea—IP law notwithstanding. Ideas are simply themselves.” Names the duty owed to ideas — “I want to do right by the ideas that arise” — and the failure mode (perfecting ideas before publishing them, so they never get published). The shift from idea-as-content to idea-as-tenant-Mike-houses.
Everything is an idea. Everything is full of ideas I am an idea, overflowing with ideas.
Some of the ideas within me are stories, because I am full of stories—just like you.
Other ideas are just ideas.
I am grateful for the ideas that come to me. Like everything else, ideas arise and they pass away.
I want to do right by the ideas that arise.
But in my efforts to do right, I have repeatedly made an error.
The error
I try to make ideas perfect before I put them out into the world.
Often I have failed to put them out of the world, because I believed that they were not perfect the way they came to me or the way I first represented (re-presented) them.
I am now determined to take each idea, translate it into some reasonable representation, like a blog post, and put it out in the world.
I will make clear that the ideas are not “mine.” No one owns an idea—IP law notwithstanding.
Ideas are simply themselves.
I will try make it as easy for someone else to take ideas forward or come up with a variant. I will construct no barriers.
Once I put the idea into the world, it’s up to the idea to find someone who wants to take it further.
I’ve done my job.
You do yours.
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Read some other stuff I wrote about ideas:
Archived to SOMA canon 2026-05-06 by Mem. Provenance: fetched directly from 70yearswtf.substack.com via host shell. Original is the source of truth; this copy exists so the team can cite without round-tripping the network.