I Am Nothing Original

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

As my life continues, I constantly find that none of my thoughts, feelings, or actions are unique. Somebody has already thought, felt, or done whatever I’m attempting and usually they’ve done a much better job than I have. This leaves me with a sever empty feeling that apart from continuing life on this earth (which millions of people are attempting each second), I have very little point in existing.

I’ve thought of books to write only to have found books with the same or very similar plot. For instance, when I was a teenager, I was very fond of the Three Investigators series. I decided that I wanted to write one and it would be about Jupiter Jone’s near twin. A few days later after I started writing, I read The Deadly Double and found out that it had already been done. Although, I must admit that it has been said that there are only 44 (44!) different fundemental plots at all (movie, play, book, whatever), so it may be hard to be unique in that field.

In poetry, it may be easy to be unique. However, after my attempts, I came to the realization that it’s everybody’s way of trying to be unique and therefore defeats the purpose.

More recently, I was travelling down to see my brother and on the way (two hour trip), I had this great idea for a new product. I get to his house and happen to read the newspaper, which just happens to have a review of the exact product I had just thought up (I’m not going to tell you since I still might enter the fray).

These are not isolated incidents. Every argument I’ve thought up on my own late nights while waiting to fall asleep, I’ve found or heard at a later date… often finding that the argument had been around for a long time and I just had never heard it. It has gotten to the point of severe frustration.

I’ve tested at a 145 IQ level officially, and higher on unofficial tests (of course). According to my friend, this level gives me the ability to have at least a basic grasp of most fundamental ideas and also the ability to learn about whatever I want pretty well (not that I’m a Pretender… you need at least a 180 IQ for that). But what is the point if all I’m ever going to do is walk in the footsteps of other people? I can stand on the shoulders of giants, but other giants have already stood there.

As I’m growning older (I’m only 26), I’m finding more and more that that is what I want to accomplish with my life: I want to do something unique.

The only thing I can figure out that I’m doing that is truely unique is that I am making a specific girl very happy (she also does the same for me). Nobody else can say that they make her happy. Sometimes this is enough for me to be content. Other times, sadly, it isn’t.

My greatest fear right now… is that someone has already posted this message. :slight_smile:

Skott

2

Damn, you already posted my witty reply to your message about everything you think of already being done. So now I can’t even beat you to an original thought; how do think that make me feel? Ahh well… :slight_smile:

3

Hey Skott… I don’t know how ta tell ya this…

But you know that girl your seeing?

I was the guy she was dating right before you, and well…

kidding… kidding

lighten up, big guy.

4

seriousart… well, see as how she’s now with me and not with you, that means you must have failed.

And to quote Oliver Wendel Jones’ science teacher: “Failure is hardly original.”

inhales helium

Light enough? :}

5

The worst part of your whole story is…I already made your girlfriend happy.

Sorry dude.

6

::psssst:: (whispers) Hey Jebus. Over here. I just made that joke.

7

Skott,

I know exactly what you mean. It’s all been done before. What’s the fuckin’ point?

I remember thinking about this, even as a kid. The whole thing troubles me as well. I have nothing to say that will make you feel better, except…

At least you have a girl.

Oh yeah, one more thing. If your going to eat some shrooms or take some acid, try to make sure you’re not in one of these moods. :wink:

8

Sometimes the point is not to be original, but to be the best at it.

Michael Jordan was not an original. There was before him Julius Irving, George Gerwin and Bernard King who each had his style of play. However, he was the best at it, and won champsioships and the Olympics. When he realize he couldn’t do it as much, he changed his game and became a complete basketball player for it.

See something, an invention, a theory, a schematic, and think “Hey, I can do better than this.” Before you know it, you will come up with something that is so good and beneficial, people think that you invented it. In this day and age, with so many people thinking new ideas and doing new things everyday, it is hard to be original. It is hard enough to be the only capacitor. :wink: The point is don’t set goals too high, or you will wind up being disappointed with yourself. Try to master something that is already there. This approach may open up avenues where you can be original.

9

If you have no original idea’s, there is still a profession that is wide open to you: Hollywood Screenwriter!

10

I hate to make you feel even worse Skott, but I read the entire Three Investigator series in elementary school, dude.

11

Hey, Skott, I think it was Einstein who said something to the effect of “we all stand on someone else’s shoulders.” And if Einstein didn’t say it, someone else did.

And King Solomon said “there is no new thing under the sun.”

To be unique, you don’t have to be original, just the best.

12

What could a linguist possibly add to this question?

Well, Noam Chomsky showed that it’s possible to speak sentences that nobody has ever spoken in the several dozen thousand years we’ve had language.

So if you can say completely original things without even noticing it, you can do the same.

13

As a former workmate of mine often said: “Most people are put on this Earth to make up the numbers.”

That said, you can’t be totally written off, After all, you have made a contribution to SDMB. That in itself puts you into the more intelligent ranks of humanity :slight_smile:

14

First of all, I hope that 26 isn’t too old to be making your mark upon the world, because if it is, I’m screwed here at age 27. That said, a lot of people have done their world changing business at an older age so you still have a lot of chances ahead of you.

I have a feeling that you can’t really work at being unique. It’s like trying to imagine a color you haven’t seen yet; all you can do is build off your previous knowledge. If you’re lucky though, someday your muse will speak to you in a flash of inspiration and you’ll come up with something totally new (well, not really new if your muse knew about it first, I guess. And if your muse is Selma Hayek, so much the better). For the most part though, it’s like what’s been said (go figure), all you can do is build off of what you know others to have done. Just because someone has written a story with fundamental plot #42 before, doesn’t mean you can’t do a much better job of it and make your mark that way. How many movies are there aliens coming to Earth? Ask twenty people to name one movie alien who’s come down to Earth and you’ll probably get four or five answers total (and I’d be suprised if most of the answers weren’t E.T.) Trust me, E.T. wasn’t the first movie about some friendly alien coming down to Earth and getting harassed and it sure won’t be the last, but you can’t deny that it left its mark on the world of film making.

Finally, if you intend to do something forever noteworthy, you’re probably going to have to specialize. I don’t think that flitting from poetry to literature to inventor to whatever else is going to allow you to get down and dirty in what you want to do. It could just be that you have yet to find what you’re good at and want to accomplish (which is nothing amazing at 26) but once you find it, that’s what you need to work on. Says me anyway, and what have I done? :wink:

15

I can agree with that. Even so, in my attempts to be the best at whatever, I’ve come across the same problems as trying to be unique. There’s always seems to be someone who can do it better than I can and without as much effort.

I wouldn’t describe my experiences as “flitting”. You would have to know me better, I guess. I have a specific direction in my life, but even so, I am sometimes faced with the desire to write that book, direct that movie, or take on a tangent to what my direction is. But in all directions that my mind has taken me, I find the path has already been trodden.

That sounds like conclusion that I’ve come to. Kind of frustrating to think that you are only a number on the earth.

I don’t feel worse at all. I started reading the series in grade school, but since the library had only so many books, I didn’t finish reading the series until junior high. I still read them every now and then today. :slight_smile:

16

Sorry, perhaps I was being a little flippant with my use of the word “flitting”. I read it and it seemed like you were just saying “How about this? Hmm… no. Well, how about this? Nope…” which was probably not the case. I’ve no idea how long you spent on any one thing or how skilled you are at them, so please excuse any offense.

17

No offense taken, Jophiel.

My experiences have not been a conscious attempt to be unique, but a desire to be creative. Each time I try to be creative, I find myself taking paths that other people have already taken. I get frustrated and decide it’s not worth it and move on to something else. It was only recently that I realized that a pattern had formed over my life. I just figured it was because I wasn’t creative enough. But now I’m beginning to think that with all of the history up until this point in time, there’s not much original to do.

After thinking more about the subject, I do remember coming up with a board game that was pretty unique. I tested it with four people and it went great. Then I tested it for the intended audience… 6 or more people and it went horrible.

I did, however, get my best friend’s girlfriend to kiss me as part of the game :} So I guess it wasn’t all for naught.

18

> it has been said that there are only 44 (44!) different fundemental plots

Is there a list of these somewhere? I thought it was even a smaller number than that.

19

Actually, in Walt Disney movies since 1990, there is only 1. Just get new voices to dubb over new pictures and viola! More merchandising…

Seriously, to the OP:

I’m 23, and have found that in my short experience, originality is overrated. The whole world is so bent on doing something different, it’s just not worth it anymore. Hedonism is a much better policy than nonconformism, I have found. I eat the food I like because it tastes good, I do the things I do because they make me feel good. I help people out when I feel they need it. I have stopped trying to find any outside meaning or greater purpose to my life. I am quite happy enjoying the experiences of my life for their own sake to worry about being original or purposeful. I have no purpose for myself other than to enjoy the 50 or so years that I have left on the planet and to pass on some of that to others before I die.

If you can’t be original enjoy being derivative.

20

I don’t know where a list is; my best friend said that he had read about it. We were talking about how things I had written seemed to match other stuff that was out there.

I always assumed it was along the line of:

  1. Boy meets girl. Boy looses girl. Boy gets girl back.
  2. Girl meets boy. Boy dies. Girl gets on with her life.
  3. Boy meets girl. Boy saves girl. Boy’s father turns out to be Darth Vader. Things explode.

etc.

You could even say that Joseph Cambell narrowed it all down to one basic plot with his hero’s circle.