It is a proof of the highest genius... For many can follow up a thing when found, but to find it first is the gift of the few, and those the first in excellence and in age. Novelty flatters, and if successful gives the possessor double credit...
Baltasar Gracián, 1647 (tr. Joseph Jacobs, 1892)
There is a real hierarchy between discovering something and merely developing what someone else discovered. Finding a thing first, seeing what no one had seen, is the mark of the highest ability and belongs to very few, while following up a discovery once it exists is a matter of sound sense that many can manage. The first is genius; the second is competence. Successful novelty carries a double credit, both for the thing itself and for the originality of having found it, which is why the finders rank above the followers. The counsel points two ways: prize and cultivate the rare gift of original discovery in yourself where you have it, and recognise and value the true originators rather than the many capable people who merely build on what the originators found.
Practice
- Prize original discovery above competent following; finding a thing first is the gift of the few, developing it the sense of the many (maxim 63 prizes being first of a kind).
- Cultivate the finder's habit where you have it; the successful novelty carries a double credit that mere execution never does.
- Recognise the true originators; give the credit to who found the thing, not only to who polished it afterward.
Use this when
- Use this to value and protect original thinking, yours and others', in a world that often rewards the polisher over the finder.
- Use it in judging contributions; the one who saw it first did the rarer and harder thing.
Ignore this when
- Don't disdain sound execution; following up well is real and necessary, and most valuable work is development, not discovery (this maxim's own "choice of means is a mark of sound sense").
- Don't chase novelty for its own sake in matters of judgment, where the paradox-for-effect is a danger (maxim 143 warns of it).
A picture of it
In a field where the polishers get the promotions, an analyst notices that the person who actually first saw the key insight, years earlier, is overlooked while those who merely built on it are celebrated. Determined not to make the same error, she learns to trace credit back to the finder, and to protect the rare originators on her own team rather than rewarding only the capable followers. She also cultivates the finder's habit in herself, spending time on the genuinely new rather than the safely derivative. Finding it first, she comes to see, is the genius the field keeps underpaying, and prizing it is its own advantage.
Finding it first is genius; following it well is only sense. Prize the finders, in others and in yourself, because the field usually underpays them.