A humbling realization for me was that almost anything I might conceive, someone else did it first.
That used to make me sad. “Am I unoriginal?”
But then I realized: Yes, I am original. I thought the thought myself. That somebody else ALSO did? That is THEIR original thought too.
So in a sense, their brain power was used on my problem. It was as if they worked for me.
Reframing originality of thought and “brain hours” in this way makes the search for my original ideas “somewhere already out there” a fun quest.
It’s as if I’m seeking a forgotten employee of a company I never had.
=====
Oh, I mean that it’s ALSO your original idea.
From a spatiotemporal database point of view it might not be original.
But from within your own mind, your idea sprung up from within you. It’s nice someone else thought of it too before you. But you own your thoughts. It’s your mind.
======
I think a grammar puts symbols into higher and higher orders.
If the base unit is a kind of “word”, that word has constraints on how it can be used and rules on how it morphs depending on placement within the grammar of the language.
But there is also “meaning” as a granularity.
=====
[responsivevoice_button voice="US English Male"]