Figure out if an idea is actually yours or something you half-remember
An idea that arrives feeling like inspiration can just as easily be something read months ago, resurfacing without its source attached.
- Use it for
- Anyone with an idea that feels exciting and original who wants to check honestly if it's actually something encountered before.
Ideas that feel like sudden inspiration sometimes are — and sometimes are a half-remembered version of something read, heard, or seen before, resurfacing without its original source attached, which memory does regularly without any signal to distinguish the two cases. This isn't usually a problem, but it matters before publicly presenting an idea as original, or before investing heavily in something that might already exist in a form worth knowing about.
When not to use this
For a private idea you're just exploring for yourself, with no plan to present it as original or invest heavily yet, this check is premature — it matters more once stakes rise.
Did this work?
You have an honest sense of whether this idea is genuinely novel to you or a half-remembered version of something encountered before, and if the latter, where it likely came from.
Tested on claude-opus-5. Evidence status is draft; it moves to battle-tested only on recorded runs, never by hand.