Stop Trying to Be Original

Everybody’s obsessed with being original.

They want to say something no one’s ever said,

do something no one’s ever done,

be someone no one’s ever been.

It’s exhausting.

And pointless.

Because here’s the truth —

there’s nothing new under the sun.

Every idea you think you’ve discovered

has already been lived, loved, broken, and written about a hundred times.

What makes it yours

isn’t the idea.

It’s the honesty.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

You just have to roll it with your own hands.

Because when you tell the truth — your truth —

it’s automatically original.

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Think about this: billions of people have lived on this earth throughout history.

Probably fewer than you’d guess, but still — enough.

Enough to know that too much has already been thought, written, or said

for any of us to be stubborn enough to think we’re original.

And with the pace knowledge grows today —

AI, data, tech, discovery —

we’re going to run out of things to say

if we believe every word must be new.

But here’s the twist:

we won’t.

Because new ideas don’t just appear.

They’re assembled.

They’re collisions of old thoughts,

rearranged into something that feels alive again.

New knowledge is just old knowledge, compressed.

Think Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.

Different centuries, same gravity —

but Einstein bent it.

Newton probably the better scientist (according to my boy —

and yeah, I’m just gonna start calling you NdT).

Those who know, know.

Those who don’t… get your head out of a rock.

See? That’s a common metaphor.

And I just used it to make my point.

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People don’t want new.

They want real.

They want to feel something that reminds them they’re alive.

That’s what connects us —

not novelty, but recognition.

The spark that says,

“Yeah… me too.”

So stop trying to be original.

Start trying to be honest.

Say the thing you’re afraid to say.

Tell the story you think no one will care about.

You’re not trying to impress anyone —

you’re trying to connect.

And if that connection happens,

even once,

with one person —

that’s not imitation.

That’s art.