Lately I have been thinking a lot about leadership and this quote keeps coming to mind.

"Great thinkers have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds" - Albert Einstein

Ever wondered why that's the case?

I think It's because genuinely new ideas usually disrupt old ideas - therefore new ideas appear at odds with an old way of thinking. When something is at odds with the way you think, your brain interprets it as 'wrong'. So therefore often what you percieve as 'wrong' is just something outside your experience.

Interestingly, though, I have found that many new ideas can actually be modeled on old patterns. Patterns that have been tried and proven.

For example in my recent discussions about distributed Twitter on the Gillmor Gang and Techcrunch posts, or with the DataPortability project I run, I am basically modeling my thoughts on Blogging (independant software, RSS as glue with aggregators doing most of the work) and the work done on WiFi/DVD (multiple standards combined together under a friendly brand).

Patterns are my thing.