If you give everything…. will people take?

In college, I rarely locked my room and people knew it and I don’t think i’ve ever had anything stolen. I also know of numerous occasions when people went into my room, got something they needed and returned it when they were done. And it never bothered me.

In the other side of the spectrume: I like the BSD-license the best, because it gives puts the burden on the developer to decide wether he wants to contribute back to the community. We should all be able to decide for ourselves… not everyone’s situation is the same. I know that this can be abused, but, I think there should be emphasis on teaching people why they should give back, instead of forcing them to. No one likes to be forced.

One of the (many) reasons I made this blog was to share my ideas as they came to me…. that’s not been the case and I regret it, but it’s not because of lack of desire or belief. It’s other things… and I often try and change that. You can see this post as one of these efforts. Here is an idea about giving ideas away:

A few days ago my father told me a story of a man who lived in a gated mansion in the Dominican Republic. Supposedly, he was kidnapped and held for ransom…even shot. I don’t know the details, but the thieves got what they wanted an he survived.

I realized something with that story: when you keep things to yourself, people will try to take it.

So i’ve been wondering: why do we horde? What do we think we gain from closing ourselves of? The idea of privacy seems old fashioned to me. Privacy requires a sense of shame. Liberalization has done away with many old ideas of shame and I think technology is helping bring down even more. What do we think we need privacy for? Are some of us not human? Do we all not hurt, love and go to the bathroom?

The thing that make us most unique should not be private! It should be shared!

This is also not support for Big Brother… far from it. This is the extreme opposite, and with no authority figure. People open themselves up because they want to and close themselves off because they want to. Very simple. The burden is on the individual to decide what they wish to share. But as I said before, we teach the benefits of sharing, but never force anyone to share.

And I don’t mean that we should never be alone. I think being alone is very important, and I think people be alone as much as they want, but it’s about traditional ideas of privacy that I am dubious of.

A friend of mine told me that he doesn’t like to write in blogs because he don’t want to have his ideas stolen. Who gains what from this? Should great ideas be held until the moment when it is most beneficial to the individual? Is that the point of great ideas? To benefit from them? Isn’t the purpose of the a great idea to change the way things are? It’s like an artist to be heard but then limits who can see can hear him! And again, this does not mean you share everything without thinking it over or strategically save an idea until it can do it’s best work, what I am opposed to is exploiting an idea (and your comrades).

I often tell people my business ideas, intentions, “philosophies”, “discoveries”, etc… and I hope they take them and run with it. It would be an honor.

I think what people fear most is only being able to contribute one idea to the world, and they are saving that one thing for the day they can cash in. I think it’s best to believe that you can contribute more than just one idea to the world… and that those who create the most will be acknowledged as fountains of greatness!

At the Institute I keep pushing for more openness…. Lets do experiments and give away the results, I say. Let others become famous implementing our ideas! The burden will be on them on make sure they properly give credit where it is due. But they are more interested in processes.

I’ve always had feelings like these, and now that it is public, I want to think this through a bit more carefully. I wonder if it’s possible to lead by example. I don’t know. I am living in this time, and I’ve been instilled with contemporary ideas of what must be guarded. So I don’t know if it’s possible to shake that off… I know there are things that I would be ashamed to share. Can I overcome this? Should I share my bank activity, love letters, baby pictures, business ideas, projects etc? Should I do everything in public? After I share everything, what can people take from me? What could people gain from it? What could I gain or learn from people? What should I be afraid of?

Is this a potentially dangerous idea? Physically, emotionally or financially?