Sometimes you have a thought that feels new and original and exciting. Then you search around and find someone already had it. Then sometimes you find they didn’t just have it. They took that train of thought further, acted on it, and shifted reality in some way. They made the artwork, the product, the business, the story, or whatever it may be.

When this happens I personally find this to be a mix of extremely annoying and then it eventually shifts to being validating and energizing.

I find it annoying because you're not first or as early as you think (although sometimes still relatively early). There’s billions of people alive today and billions of people who’ve lived over countless years of history. That’s a lot of thinking. It shouldn’t be annoying at all it should be the default expectation, but alas.

I find it validating because it turns out with my own thinking I am on the right track. I may be behind, sometimes very behind, but I am finding my way down some logical line of thinking that is arriving at some correct (or at least consensus) conclusions along the way.

I find it energizing because it means if I simply continue to be curious, think and act more on that train perhaps I can speed up to get to the frontier of that track or find some new tracks that no one has started down yet. For more frontier or out there trains of thought there's a magical benefit of meeting likeminded people along the way, and that tends to materialize seamlessly when sharing it all along the way on the internet.

I like this notion of thought trains because they can help you understand where you are. A thought isn't a thing in isolation. It's logically connected to other thoughts. You can get a sense of where you are by the number of public references exist for the thoughts you're having. If there's very few, you're far ahead or somewhere new. If there's a lot, then you're on a well formed track and people further ahead on the tracks.

If you know you're far ahead, this lets you position yourself ahead of the curve and know what many people will think and do behind you. This is where great trades, new products, and new businesses start. It also means you're probably in a great place to teach and walk people through the line of thinking to arrive at the same place.

If you know you happen to be behind, that can also help you position yourself. Maybe you get off those tracks and try to find new ones. Or maybe you keep going, acknowledging that there's a lot of wisdom ahead, until you feel like you're finding new territory or the end of the tracks.

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