在你的职业生涯中，很可能你曾经借鉴过别人的想法。我想知道为什么。
在我们这个时代最伟大的乐队之一的故事中，藏着一条线索。
天下没有不散的筵席，到了 1970 年，备受喜爱的披头士乐队决定分道扬镳。
不到一年，乔治·哈里森凭借独唱歌曲《My Sweet Lord》登上了排行榜榜首。但他的辉煌时期却很短暂。不到一个月，他就面临了一场诉讼。哈里森的歌曲虽然歌词原创，但旋律和和声却与1963年The Chiffons乐队的热门歌曲《He's So Fine》雷同。
披头士乐队的主音吉他手是否犯有抄袭罪？
恰巧是音乐爱好者的理查德·欧文法官裁定哈里森有罪。但他表示，哈里森的盗窃行为并非故意，而是意外且无意识的。
最终，哈里森承认欧文是对的。“我之前并没有意识到《他真好》和《我的甜蜜主》之间的相似之处，”哈里森在他的自传中写道。“我为什么没意识到呢？”
心理学家丹·吉尔伯特将这种现象称为“盗忆症” ：产生一个你认为是原创的想法，但实际上却是别人的创意。这是一种无意的剽窃，在创意工作中非常普遍。
在一项经典的实验中，心理学家艾伦·布朗和达娜·墨菲邀请参与者四人一组进行头脑风暴。他们轮流列出运动、乐器、服装或四足动物的清单。每位参与者从每个类别中提出四个想法。接下来，参与者被要求写下他们自己为每个类别提出的四个想法。
令人震惊的是，高达75%的参与者在无意中存在抄袭行为，他们声称自己提出了某个想法，而实际上这个想法是由小组其他成员提出的。之后，参与者们为每个类别写下四个新想法。大多数人至少写下了一个其他小组成员已经提出过的想法——通常是紧随其后提出想法的小组成员。
他们是不是没认真听讲？如果是这样，他们肯定也很有可能抄袭自己的想法。但事实并非如此。虽然71%的参与者声称自己的想法是小组其他成员提出的，但只有8%的人提出了自己之前的想法。
盗窃性记忆症的发生源于人类记忆机制中一个实用却又奇特的特征。当我们编码信息时，我们往往更关注信息的内容而非来源。一旦我们接受了某个信息的真实性，我们就不再需要纠结于信息的来源。
当我们忙碌、分心或处理复杂任务时，尤其难以记住信息的来源。（这在当今职场中是不是很常见？）而且，我们的注意力越分散，就越容易忽略那些想法的提出者。这就解释了为什么人们最容易把在自己之前提出的想法据为己有。当轮到自己发言时，他们正竭尽全力地想出一个好主意，因此根本无暇顾及之前那些想法的来源。
为了对抗窃取记忆症，心理学家建议减少干扰，避免同时处理多项任务。尽量减少接触类似作品也很有帮助。例如，喜剧编剧乔治·迈耶在为《辛普森一家》（共16季！）撰写剧本时，就避免观看《宋飞正传》。迈耶告诉我：“我害怕自己会在潜意识里借鉴一个笑话。”
如果乔治·哈里森当初采取了这些措施，或许就能避免严重的经济损失和心碎。至少，在构思创意时，明智的做法是先找到一些类似的现有创意，仔细审视其中的重叠之处，并给予应有的认可。否则，正如哈里森所说，“我们往往会互相伤害，只索取而不付出。”
在日常生活中，最重要的纠正措施或许在于训练自己不仅关注说了什么，还要关注是谁说的。正如心理学家尼尔·麦克雷、盖伦·博登豪森和古列尔莫·卡尔维尼所说：“愿源头与你同在。”
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I am so grateful to live in the Storytelling world where we borrow (not steal) each others ideas on a regular basis being as conscious as possible to give each other credit where and when credit is due. Those who are ethical are very careful to honor each other, the stories, the culture and to ask permission and then adapt and share. There are no new ideas under the sun, as the quote alluded to, there are amazing new connections that can generate amazing new advances. If we are too afraid that an idea is someone else's a creative may never create. But it is important to be ethical and honor if indeed we ARE aware an idea is someone else's. That's my take and give on this one. :)
Wow! My appreciation of this website has just multiplied. I love the constructive thoughts you have each added to this conversation. I will definitely do some research into the groups, books and ideas you've each mentioned. And if I encourage anyone else with the ideas you've shared here, I'll be sure to give you credit ;) Thanks for my Daily Good!
I recommend one of my favorite books: "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon. Why feel guilty? Why try not to do it? The ideas are out there. Why not use them? If you are really consciously drawing on someone else, then give credit, but, otherwise, ideas are public property!
Yes, very true. I would not call it stealing. Th idea of Karma Kitchen is very appealing to me. It gave birth to Karma Kafe in San Diego. I was volunteering in Seva Cafe in Ahmedabad. I then thought of doing this a different way in San Diego. I am very thankful to all who inspired or brought this idea to the world. Thank You all.
Thank you Deborah. I so resonate with your take. This looks like it comes from the "intellectual property" scourge that is really running amuck in the culture. Patents over herbal meds, patents over heritage seeds it goes all directions :-) We are all "guilty" as every word was created and sharing ideas is how we actually learn . It is the diverse mix that augments creativity and the very core of this article seems to hover around he corporate aspects that are in fact shrinking diversity in their need to "GROW>" and discourage "competition" etc. We are at the end of that story and there is a healthy alternative. I found it by unraveling the question of self and unity and am calling it the feminine archetype journey to balance this masculine drama we've been "living."
Disappointed in this article. I typically find such encouragement in Daily Good articles. From the title referring to stealing to the warning about breaking each others hearts, this preys on the anxieties that so many artists struggle with. It's taken a long time for me to release my fear that not all my art will be composed of completely unique ideas and images since so we share so many of our ideas and in so many ways it has "all been done before".
It's interesting to understand how the brain works in capturing and holding onto information, but tying this to the artistic process and warning artists to not integrate ideas from the world around them into their work does not feel constructive to me.
I'd be curious to explore the opportunities that lie within the research. How could we benefit from the fact that other peoples ideas stick with us? Can that help us understand our connections and maybe even use that to help people see that we're not so different from one another and that our ideas can resonate with one another.
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