Originality is just an illusion?

Comment #12 on a recent Techdirt post made me sad.

Re: A million monkeys by Jrock on Jun 7th, 2006 @ 2:32pm
"...I think we are getting dangerously close to the point in our existence where unique ideas (and especially unique pieces of written language) are extinct. Come on, nothing anyone says is original. We all put words together in ways we have already heard them put together... A hundred thousand other peanut brains already thought (your idea) up and it's probably patented, or written about, or on the market. We're all so obsessed with originality but it is just an illusion."

I think the goal of an innovator is not to be original, but to listen and respond honestly to the world around him. Answers will come, and some might be repeats. So what? If the idea solves the problem, good for the innovator. And the world.

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