Time & Perspective Quote by Joichi Ito

Creativity, Ito argues, is less lightning bolt than relay race, and the provocation is aimed at a culture that still fetishizes the lone genius. By calling “most” creative work a process of passing ideas forward, he’s quietly demoting originality from sacred status to one ingredient among many: selection, remix, refinement, timing. The line reads like an antidote to romantic mythology, but it’s also a pragmatic philosophy for how innovation actually moves in networked societies.

The subtext is political in the small-p sense: if ideas are inherited and iterated, then access matters. Who gets to touch the archive, who gets credit, who is allowed to “add their own creativity”? That phrasing gestures toward open systems, permissive sharing, and the moral argument behind open-source culture: progress accelerates when barriers to reuse are low. It’s also a subtle defense against the anxiety that influence equals theft; Ito frames influence as the default mechanism of culture, not a scandal.

Context sharpens the intent. Ito is a businessman associated with technology and institutions that traffic in “innovation” as a brand. In that world, patents, IP enforcement, and platform gatekeeping can turn the relay race into a toll road. His quote functions as a norm-setting statement: creativity isn’t a pristine property right so much as a living commons with contributors. It works because it lowers the temperature around originality while raising the stakes around stewardship - you don’t invent in a vacuum; you inherit, then you’re responsible for what you pass on.