Be original. Never repeat what has already been said as if it is your own, new idea.
People are unique. God made us that way. Insanity, however, bears consistent, predictable, and recognizable patterns. Healthy humans can never be fully understood; when we become all too easy to predict, somewhere we have gone mad.
When the books already written and debates already exhausted become our own repeating words, round and round again, life begins to deteriorate. Look at the Christian and Atheist having a “conversation”, each spouting ideas long published by more educated men than they. Their argument never ends and neither is satisfied. It would be better for either to say, “Books have already been written to satisfy these queries. What original ideas can we bring, if any?” Eventually, both will develop deep inner questions since neither one defends his own ideas.
Once an idea has been said, move one. Once an answer has been given, don’t ask the question afterward. When others ask you questions you already answered, say so rather than repeating yourself—rather than plagiarizing yourself. Know when all room for new ideas and new work has been filled, then end discussion so everyone can go about their separate ways, moving on to what good things they might begin next.
People who think their inner and outer struggles are unique easily become depressed. Everyone would do well to recognize a boilerplate thought life. The easiest way to recognize boilerplate publishing is to write frequently and with originality. If your life is not original, you will chase other unoriginality, trying to conform yourself to “be like others” in order to be liked by others. Living such a mimicking so-called “lifestyle” makes no one happy nor escapes life’s vicious cycles.
Study mental illnesses as often as you study history. Watch for repetition because failure and insanity are the most skilled at unoriginality. The leader who convinces his society to conform is himself insane and his society adopts culture-wide insanity by so conforming. Never trust a teacher whose pupils repeat the same answers. Never entertain inquisitive minds who ask answered questions. Quit once your work is finished, lest you over-stay your keep and repeat failure.