Ask HN: How common is it to independently invent/discover things?

I think people discover something new soon after a set of preconditions are met. Then once people know about it, it becomes easier for later people to discover it, because this knowledge starts to be incorporated in speech, other fields of knowledge, and culture.

The concept of zero did not exist before a certain time. Now my four year old gets what zero is, without me ever having to really explain it.

Perspective in painting did not exist before a certain time. Now 10 year olds can draw using perspective, without having to be taught.

Distinctions between certain colors did not appear to exist in various cultures before they suddenly did. Blue and green were considered different shades of the same color.

Certain harmonies did not exist in music before a certain time. Now tiny children make up new songs with those harmonies.

Double entry bookkeeping didn't exist before a certain time.

Barbed wire didn't exist before someone invented it. Until then ranchers in areas with little wood had to use shrubs and hedges to try to keep cows from getting out, or just herded the cattle around semi-nomadically.

The way you are able to think about a problem is influenced by language, perception of the things around you, art, and culture. In a world that understands the Pythagorean Theorem, it's easier to figure out the Pythagorean Theorem.

Also I agree, a lot of software design patents are bullshit.

Tangential.

I have always been a very imaginative and creative person, even as far back as my single digit years. Over the years many of the ideas that I mused privately have become reality a few years after. In my late teens I was convinced that I was leaking idea into the universe and someone else was capturing them, until I had a ceramic throne thought that asked me what if all the ideas I ever had were leaking from someone else.

I similarly independently re-discover things, such as recently when I re-discovered the Fermat primality test. Years ago I remember independently deriving the Black-Sholes pricing formula. These things tend to happen when you are intellectually exploring in a previously explored area. It is much easier to explore the Grand Canyon when travelling through northern Arizona by modern roads than it was when John Wesley Powell led his expedition. In the same way, it is much faster and easier for those of us who benefit from the work of those before us to find important intellectual landmarks. The path has been cleared, so to speak. But hard problems exist. There are problems where the path is still quite thorny, as no one has gone there yet.

There is a word for the trait you have: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodidacticism

You may find it helpful to google to find advice for how to handle your way of learning and fill the holes you will have in your knowledge that you end up with by exploring rather than following the canon.

Ideas aren't worth much, execution is everything.

I would like to encourage you to act on those ideas because the real art is in translating those ideas into practical solutions. Everyone has their own ideas of what would solve a problem, but 99% of those ideas will not work because they are not grounded on reality.

The problem is that I can't tell which of my ideas are novel.

It's not about them being novel. ux4's point is that businesses don't get their worth for doing things nobody thought of before. They get their worth for properly executing ideas nobody properly executed before.

> Most startups, including those asking you to sign a NDA, are ideas I've had before.

Ideas you've had before, but haven't taken the steps those startups have in implementing them.

> Usually, I'll think of a problem, imagine the solution, and only then find out if it exists and how it's called.

That's just the global market being big. It's probably very common. There's a lot of cool stuff out there most people have no clue about.

Solutions to 'hard problems' are formed using very basic concepts. Do you have documentation that you established a theorem such as your first example PRIOR to EVER participating in formal education establishments?

If you feel that you have a disability, contact your primary care provider and seek professional opinion for closure.

> Do you have documentation that you established a theorem such as your first example PRIOR to EVER participating in formal education establishments?

No. Why?

> If you feel that you have a disability, contact your primary care provider and seek professional opinion for closure.

My preference for inventing over learning is what I hypothesized as a learning disability. Does this really require the opinion of a _________ specialist?

People think ideas are special but anyone can come up with more ideas than they can possibly act on. If they do act on it they must see the idea as special.

If a human can figure something out another human can too, theres nothing special about the person.