The dubious notion of a thought leader
Living in an echo chamber
Photo by myself, Sisteron Chapel
One problem today in our current echo chamber is that many “thought leaders” want to be seen as the original source of an idea rather than building on and crediting the past, then taking things further.
I saw an example recently of a high-level «thought leader» writing about ideas as if they were his original creation when in reality they had come from other sources.
The notion of a «thought leader» is dubious. Leading other people’s’ thoughts? Hmm. Why not stimulate, facilitate or even cultivate thoughts in other people?
I wrote exactly this in a short post on LinkedIn last October, and it got nearly 5,000 views, 30 comments and stimulated some good conversations. (Check it out.)
Tiktok, a model for thought leading?
One intriguing idea that came up via Jonathan Anthony, author of “Dis!Organize” was how TikTok relates to creators sharing creations and giving credit. He explains at length how the interplacy of stealing and building upon is relevant to many creative arts. a few quotes from his contribution:
The appropriation is built into the model for the app. The remix is core. Therefore it is ok to copy, transform, and combine (the 3 basic elements of creativity). Creativity is the act of working out loud, by its nature.… At the beginning, we make, and share, because it is the art of learning. We stand on the shoulders of others. We have no expectations….Same with business ideas / thought leadership. When we discuss, it is the co-created work. It is enjoyable and freeing. Once we try to monetize, it becomes IP….The advantage of eg tiktok is there is an audit trail of where it all began. The more we work out loud, the clearer the genesis story. So yes, young people are more likely to be able to claim the ownership, acclaim their genius.