Write 31 Days- day 5 Can you Reinvent the Wheel?

So today was a total bust (productivity-wise) but while I was searching furiously for 2 pieces of equipment I had an abundance of time to ponder a thing or two in my tender little man-heart.

Mostly, I grumbled about why my little container of hangar bolts wasn't in the assigned spot. What had become of them? Were they scared of being used for their intended purpose? Were they in that "rebellious" stage of their existence? Had they run off with the *gasp* slotted screw driver? The mind boggles at the shame that could be brought upon the shop if that got out.

I also got in some quality thinking time about creativity. Spanning the distances of time and geography how many people have been creative about the same thing? Surely the incidence of the creation of a particular idea or good is not really "new" given the totality of mankind. A good example is the era of early aviation when so much was being discovered and doubtless there were more than a few A-HAs happening concurrently and someone was simply in a better place at a better time to be seen as "the guy" to think it up.

Stepping outside the world of patents and lawyers, if both ideas were developed apart from the "other guy" does the creativity become diminished because of one or the other being a better publicist? A better filler-out of forms? A better salesman? I have to tell you, all other things being equal,  I don't think so.

From a point-of-view of pure creativity the mind wrestles with the problem at hand. "How do I get wind moving over the wing to create lift?" plagues both camps and the experience of each leads to a unique solution, good or bad. Some jump off a cliff, some built a catapult. Some succeed, some fail. But to assign a "more" or "less" tag to the expenditure of creative energy?

Keep creating. Keep working the problem, searching for the solution. Put your head down and push on. Because eventually you might find....hey, my hangar bolts!