Why it pays to give credit when using other people’s ideas

I was recently hired to write a book based on the ideas of a couple of thought leaders who’d built a fair-sized consulting company. My job of gathering source material started with interviewing their colleagues about the idea frameworks that they used in their practices.

During one of these interviews, I had a very odd experience. The framework that this individual shared seemed very familiar. It reminded me of another book I’d worked on years earlier. Sure enough, I compared their PowerPoint slides to the other book, there was about a 90% overlap in content.

Not only was this person using somebody else’s framework, but they had no idea that it had originated elsewhere. They were just blithely using it in practice as if they’d invented it.

Clued in to the possibility that some of the ideas these authors were sharing weren’t original, I began to search the Web for content relating to the other frameworks in the book. Sure enough, several of the other frameworks had originated with other thinkers. It wasn’t all cribbed from the same source, but a lot of it wasn’t completely original.

I told the clients that we could certainly include their elaboration of these ideas in their book, but we’d have to give credit to the originators of the idea. “Sure, that’s fine,” they said. They seemed unconcerned about issues of credit.

Why giving appropriate credit for ideas is obligatory

From a legal perspective, stealing ideas is hard to prosecute. It’s as common as crabgrass. While directly quoting or paraphrasing content is actionable as plagiarism, stealing ideas is far harder to prove as a legal matter.

It’s still wrong. But let’s put aside the legal details. Even if you could get away with it, you shouldn’t, because it will interfere with what you’re trying to accomplish in your book.

First off, you must assume that someone will recognize the source of the idea, as I did when working on these authors’ book. A reader who sees you using ideas without credit will have a poor view of your ethics, which is going to make your work ineffective.

At some point, you’ll need to prove the idea is valid. That’s a lot harder to do if you don’t have access to the original author’s data and justifications.

If someone else then uses “your” idea, you’re stuck. You can’t credibly claim they stole it from you if the truth is you stole it from somebody else.

In any case, once word gets back to the original creator of the idea, you’ll likely end up involved in a nasty public dispute, which won’t do your book or your reputation any favors.

On the other hand, let’s look at what happens if you do give credit to the creator of an idea, and then extend it or build on it. By making it clear you are a follower of the idea’s originator, you associate yourself with that person’s body of work. You still get credit for the ways in which you improved upon or enhanced the ideas. And because authors like fans, you’ll likely get support and praise, rather than resentment, from the idea’s original creator, which will further extend your own visibility.

The idea that citing someone else detracts from your own reputation is completely backwards. People who properly cite others’ content and frameworks are typically seen as making valuable contributions and behaving responsibly in the community of thinkers.

Frankly, if your take on the idea is so similar to the original that you’ve added nothing valuable, then you don’t deserve any recognition or revenue from it in any case.

Meme culture isn’t idea culture

Sharing, stealing, and modifying ideas is part of meme culture. The focus is on making things that spread. Nobody thinks about credit, they only think about views, likes, and shares.

If your “idea” is a satirical TikTok video, that’s probably fine.

But in the intellectual word of thinkers and thought leadership, it’s not.

Be fastidious about credit. You’ll sleep better at night. And in the end, you’ll get the benefit of being a responsible member of the community of thinkers, which pays endless dividends over the course of an intellectual career.