Don’t Steal Your Content — Aggregate to Develop Your Next Original Idea
We don’t want their ideas. We want yours. Here’s how to create them:
Aggregate not aggravate. Maybe that’s my new motto. The more content we put in, the better the content we can create. But sometimes we get that one, great idea and forget to give credit where credit is due.
Or maybe we read a single book or article and form our entire worldview around one person’s idea. This is dangerous. This is how we get flat-earthers, Holocaust-deniers, the anti-science club, and all the other nonsense — even today.
Feels like the more information that’s available, the more we cling to one idea.
So, we steal. We find something we like (be it idea, framework, or business model) and pass it off as ours.
We don’t mean to steal, but sometimes we forget to give the credit. Worse yet, we haven’t developed our own framework, idea, or worldview. We borrowed an idea from a single source and adopted it as ours.
There’s a better way.
When you aggregate your framework, you develop something new. You become the reporter — impartial to the case until all the facts are stuffed in a folder before you.
If you want to create your next original idea — for anything — it’s time to aggregate.
How to aggregate
First, you need a theme. Whether you want to cure cancer, write a novel, develop a course, or understand politics — you must start with a compass heading.
Without a direction for your aggregation you’re dabbling. That’s not what this process is about.
Aggregation isn’t always easy.
You must keep your preconceptions to yourself. Sometimes you’ve got to try and prove yourself wrong if you want to strengthen your argument. Sometimes you must convince yourself to join the other side.
Second, you need to collect as much data as you can handle withing a certain window.
You can do research indefinitely, correct? To combat this, when I aggregate a new idea I give myself a window. If it’s a huge project, like a book or course, I’ll give myself a few months to aggregate.
If you’re writing a simple article, you might give yourself an hour.
Collect content from different viewpoints. Don’t edit or make an conclusions yet. All we’re doing is collecting data and taking notes.
Third, develop your own framework
Now it’s time to review your notes. Look at the different frameworks you uncovered. What’s the same across all of them? What’s different? What’s missing (this is the important one)? Did everyone over-complicate or over-simplify the problem?
Fourth, test your idea against the standard and see how it holds up.
You can’t just think of a novel idea without testing it. Your new framework should hold up to scientific rigor. Plug your new assumption into the current thinking and see how it stands up.
Did your idea improve productivity?
Did you idea create a new plot twist?
Did your idea make someone rich?
Did your idea make someone healthier?
New for the sake of new doesn’t help anyone. Where we win is when we create a new idea based on the aggregation of old ideas, and we test said new idea against the standard thinking — and win.
Tell the others
There’s nothing worse for humanity than you uncovering a new idea through aggregation, and leaving your idea in a drawer.
If you discover something new that will help at least one person better her life, it’s your duty to tell the others.
Right now the best way to tell the others is to develop a platform you own and control — a group no one can take from you. When you control access to your tribe you establish a trusting relationship over time.
When you own your traffic, you’ll have a direct way to share your new, aggregated framework. By building a tribe you have a way to multiply your message.
Tap the link below. Enroll in my Tribe 1K indie email masterclass. I’ll show you how to get your first 1,000 subscribers (and your next 1,000) without spending one hot nickel on ads.
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August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indies how to create work that sells and how to sell more of that work once it’s created. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.