Leonardo da Vinci was apparently very paranoid about others stealing his ideas and taking credit for his discoveries. So paranoid that he felt compelled to disguise all his writings in mirror writing. And yet, though Leonardo's artistic genius was appreciated at his time, much of his other work as scientist and inventor remained unnoticed until much later, by which time his discoveries had already been invented.
When you have an idea it's very tempting to keep it to yourself. Besides, you have to work on it until it's ready to be shared by others. It has to be developed far enough. Then you have to protect it - make it your intellectual property. Then you can only talk to people about it secretively in case they should run off and do their own hit product or copy of your idea. Consequently, in so many cases, no matter how good the idea is, nothing comes of it. It's so secret that it doesn't happen and nobody benefits.
The other approach is to give it all away for free. Is it not better if somebody uses the ideas and makes them work now, even if they copy or 'steal' them , than be 'discovered' 100s of years later?
IDEO, the product development firm recognise this with one of their 'mantras': "Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone inventor." In other words get out there and try it, be open with it, improve it, develop it and spread the word - rather than keep it to yourself and it ultimately never happen.
