STAND-UP PHILOSOPHY

IF THE UNIVERSE KEEPS REPEATING ITSELF, WHY DO WE THINK WE'RE SO ORIGINAL?

Or How Humanity Reinvents the Wheel Every Generation—and Then Tries to Patent It

At the World Office of Originality, the line began in prehistoric times and ended beside the coffee machine. A sign on the door read: “New Ideas Get Priority.” Nobody had ever been first.

A young man walked in wearing a cardboard crown.

“I've invented rebellion against parents!”

The clerk looked up. She had the expression of a woman who had personally checked every century.

“Rejected. Parents have been receiving complaints since antiquity.”

“Then my generation is the first that's completely different from all the others!”

“That's exactly what your grandfather said. We have the photograph. He was wearing the same crown.”

The young man asked for the complaints register. The clerk pointed to the library behind her.

“Are those all the complaints?”

“No. Those are just yesterday's.”

While waiting, the young man noticed a wall displaying photographs of the winners of the Originality…