By Timothy T. Tater, Editor and Chief Spud
The Sweet Potato
In an age where everyone claims to be a “disruptor” and “thought leader,” we face an uncomfortable truth: most of us simply aren’t clever enough to justify the confidence. But fear not! There’s a time-honored solution for the cognitively challenged among us—shameless imitation.
Why reinvent the wheel when you can simply trace over someone else’s blueprint and claim you’re “building on established best practices”? It’s not plagiarism; it’s strategic homage.
The Revolutionary Art of Doing Exactly What Worked Before Might Not Work 5th Time Around
Consider the brave souls who have stepped into corporate boardrooms and actually stepped out to make bold moves. If you can’t come up with similar such moves and ideas, boldly and suspiciously rewrite your predecessor’s quarterly report from last year. Certainly, you can’t go wrong…or can you?
You might want to read the room…old ideas turned new may not have the same intended results.
A Field Guide to Productive Mediocrity
The true genius of using your forerunner’s playbook lies in the plausible deniability. When things go wrong, you can gesture vaguely at “industry standards” and “conventional wisdom.” When things go right, you can claim you “leveraged proven frameworks” with your “unique perspective.”
It’s the perfect crime against innovation.
The Golden Rules:
- Never admit you’re winging it—that suggests you’re at least trying to think
- Always have a predecessor to blame or credit, depending on outcomes
- Sprinkle in phrases like “iterative approach” and “building on foundational principles”
- Remember: confidence inversely correlates with competence, but nobody else knows that
In Conclusion
So the next time you’re faced with a challenge that requires actual thought, take a deep breath, find whoever did something vaguely similar before you, and photocopy their homework. After all, humanity didn’t get this far by everyone trying to be special.
Sometimes the smartest thing you can do is admit you’re not that smart—and then let someone smarter do the thinking for you.
It’s not intellectual cowardice; it’s “leveraging institutional knowledge from actual intellectuals.”