Innovation Arbitrage

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Nikola Tesla was obsessed with alternating-current systems (AC) while Thomas Edison believed in direct-current (DC). Arguably the two greatest minds of the 19th century would be at odds, sparking a war that would lead Edison to do anything to sabotage Tesla's research. Tesla did all the groundwork for other people to come along and file patents — eventually making AC systems the standard.

In creative work there's hunters & scavengers. The people who do the hard work and those who just rely on the efforts of others. It's better to arbitrage the ideas of others than to spend countless hours struggling to bring about an idea that others will rip off going 2→1.

Even Elon Musk uses the creative power/leverage of others to build rockets.