I believe any programmer has several ideas that she/he considers as innovative or at least valuable. It may be an idea of a new product which will make this world better or a new development approach, etc.

But a great idea must be implemented and promoted/advertised. This requires a lot of work (proofs of concept, prototypes, technology previews, etc.) and a lot of money (appropriate advertisement, marketing, etc.). So months later, the idea stays in our heads, but nothing else is done, because it's difficult, long and expensive, sometimes even impossible for a single developer.

On the other hand, it would be painful to share our ideas, and see a medium-size company which has enough resources making something useful from it and having success and money.

So what do you do with your ideas you can hardly implement or patent? Do you talk freely about them in discussion boards and with other developers? Do you keep them like a precious thing without never talking about them to anybody?

If you keep your ideas, why are you doing so? Is it just because you hope that one day, you will be able to implement them and have a huge success, while you know very well by experience that it's an utopia?

Ideas left unimplemented might as well be predictions of what someone else is going to implement. I think that it is rare, especially in this day and age for only a single person to come up with an idea. If you thought of it, chances are that someone else has as well.

Fortunately, I work in a company that treats its people very well. If I come up with something that I think would work, I meet very little resistance when it comes to gathering the resources that I need to implement it. I'm also compensated quite nicely if an idea does well.

For those who don't have the resources to get off the drawing board, you have two choices. Try, as hard as you can to get your idea in front of people who can help you - or keep quiet about it and watch someone else implement it. 

I don't think the fear that 'someone is just going to steal my idea if I go to them for help' is reasonable, in most cases. You have a 100% chance of never seeing your idea get off the ground if you stay quiet, and perhaps a 5 - 10% chance of getting ripped off if you don't. While you may think your idea is worth millions, it probably isn't. Don't overestimate how much someone might want to steal it.

Given that, I think the choice is simple.
