The more you share a joke, the less it belongs to you and the more it’s worth.

Some things grow by being given away. A joke that spreads stops being yours in any ownable sense and becomes the thing a whole group says to each other, which is worth more than credit for it ever was. Holding on to authorship keeps it small. The same trade applies to ideas, recipes and most of what you make.

When you have something good this week, hand it over without stapling your name to it: the trick that makes the homework faster, the playlist, the shortcut at work. See how far it travels. Caring more about the spread than the credit turns out to be a decent way to live.