Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
148
 www.ideavirus.com
Van Gogh Lost His Ear To Prove A Point
When Vincent was painting, he often sold his work for just enough money to cover the cost
of paints and canvas. Back then, his ideas and his paintings were one and the same, and
neither was held in very high regard.
Over the last hundred years or so, something has changed. Instead of selling for $200, or
$2,000 or even $20,000, it’s not unusual to read of a $10,000,000 sale of a Van Gogh. Over
time his paintings have increased in value with each sale. But the paintings haven’t changed
at all, have they?
What’s changed is the value of his ideas and the popularity of his ideas—not the ideas
themselves. It’s easy to get a reproduction of a Van Gogh. For a few hundred dollars, you can
even get a painted reproduction that only a trained expert can tell isn’t the original. So why
pay twenty million dollars?
Because you’re buying a souvenir. An expensive souvenir, no doubt, but a souvenir
nonetheless. The original painting is a priceless keepsake that reminds you of the idea
Vincent Van Gogh first unleashed on the world. And unfortunately for Van Gogh and his
heirs, it took far too long for the ideavirus to spread.
Compare this inexorable and dramatic increase in value with the resale value of a newspaper.
Today’s newspaper is “worth” fifty cents to a dollar. The combination of recent news and
events in one handy packet makes it a reasonable purchase. However, yesterday’s paper is
virtually worthless. And if you’ve got a big stack of them, you’re going to have to 
pay
me to
take them away.
Why? What happened? Simple: the newspaper is a vessel for ideas with very short half-lives,
and once the ideas aren’t fresh any more, they’re worthless. Imagine, though, how much you
could sell 
tomorrow’s 
paper for—especially if you sold it while the stock market was still
open.

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