Most of the bad startup ideas I hear are bad not because they’re under threat of someone’s stealing the idea, but because the founder doesn’t know what he or she doesn’t know.

Great article.

I deal with this fairly often in my work in informational research. People hire me to find information they may not have thought of. I have signed NDAs in the past. If anything it puts my startup clients at ease in working with an outsider. People become so protective of their product or idea that most cannot see that there are indeed similar ideas like their own.

Years as an art director, I know that artists over the centuries steal ideas from on another. A good designer would change an idea so to en extent as it would not infringe upon someone’s copyrighted material. There is a good book about this idea called “Steal Like and Artist” by Austin Kleon.