Where Do Ideas Go When They Die?

Tripp Abbott
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

We all have those projects that we have spent countless hours of blood, sweat and tears on and for whatever reason, and there are many, never have the opportunity to see the light of day. And it’s creatives that know this pain better than most.

So I ask, what is to be the ultimate fate of these projects that we have not only concepted, but raised, nurtured and grown to love? Do they simply get tossed? That seems harsh, no?

Perhaps and most likely they’re filed away somewhere on your hard drive, hoping for the day they can make a glorious return, much like the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes.

Waiting in the shadows for that day, the day when someone cry’s out; “We need a new design, but there’s simply no time!” This is your moment you say yourself. The moment you’ve been waiting for, but you need to play it cool, you can’t let them see your excitement. So you answer back in the most heroic voice your 9:30a self can muster, “I think I may have something on my hard drive!”

Great thought right? But as we all know this never happens, most designs are never heard from again. Instead exiled, to the Island of Misfit Ideas. But is there no use for them? Could we not learn from them, share them, continue to work on them? Instead we horde them, keeping them to ourselves so others can’t “copy”.

Instead why not share them. Put them on display for the world to see. Consider them no different then open-source software, available for others to work on, tinker with and approve upon. Your idea, big or small serves no purpose, nor benefit to anyone locked away on a hard drive waiting for that day when someone cry's out for its glorious return.

So I leave you with this question. Where do ideas go when they die?

Tripp Abbott

Founder / Creative Director of SMOHK + [MIR-ERS]®

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