Someone in the club tonight has stolen my ideas

Crossposted from the OkCupid:

I had a chance meeting with another writerly sort yesterday. Naturally we talked about the projects we were working on. I'm always pretty forward, but this other guy vaguely hinted at what he was working on. He was afraid to even tell me the name of his protagonist, even after I assured him I don't generally work in fiction. I can't understand people who are deathly afraid their ideas may be stolen.

I don't believe for an instant an idea can be "stolen".

Maybe the specific implementation of a particular idea can be emulated... if two authors have exactly the same background, skills and writing styles. But two authors are going to treat the same idea differently. Furthermore, the phrase "nothing new under the sun" springs to mind, as does "the hero with a thousand faces". Everyone who creates is standing on the shoulders of giants.

I resent the implication that an author can be "out of ideas" and seeking, like a vampire, new ideas to steal. I reckon most creative sorts have more ideas than they have time to write down or paint or choreograph or cook or carve or what have you. Ideas are everywhere. Ideas are common and have no value. They're like grains of sand. Sand is worthless. It's only when blown into glass for our champagne or formed into silicon wafers for our computers that it has real value. Ideas have no value until somebody makes something out of them.