The Scarcity Script

A conundrum on my mind lately is that ideas simultaneously feel like both an infinite and a finite resource. I find they come like wildfire and often die in my Notes App graveyard of ideas or drawer full of half-assed, completed brainstorms—because I couldn’t possibly have the capacity/time to explore every single one of them. 

Yet, when someone else produces something that feels oddly familiar to an existing creative seed I had, I feel a deep pang of regret that I didn’t make it myself. I slide into comparison mode, witnessing how this other person translated the idea through their own voice and medium, wondering if mine would actually have sucked by comparison (so I guess it’s good I didn’t bother making it then). 

I feel grief that this idea is now “gone.” As if two people aren’t allowed to explore the same idea. Misbelieving that there is some fixed number of good ideas in circulation, and that once someone else claims one, it’s no longer yours to touch. I was simply too slow / lazy / unmotivated / not a good creative / whatever.

This isn’t a talent or capacity problem; it’s a safety problem. The scarcity script doesn’t start within our creative practice; it lives somewhere older and deeper. We are conditioned to believe there is only room for a few voices at one time. Being seen feels competitive, and our creative practice becomes yet another arena for this fear to perform in. It creates its own paradox: if someone else has already made “the thing,” you don’t have to risk making your own version only to find out it didn’t matter or that no one cared. Scarcity creeps in when it’s trying to protect us from the prospect of being unnecessary, not capable, not good enough, not deserving. All shameful feelings that are antithetical to our creative process.

But someone else’s interpretation will never be the same as your idea— it’s proof that the idea was possible. No one else has your specific voice or talent. The scarcity script asks you to compete for airtime, but what you actually make doesn’t have any competition to begin with. There is always room for your interpretation.