Warning: Plagiarists of Awesome Content Will be Eaten

Editor's Notes

1. Gary Sharpe has brought up the subject of plagiarism on LinkedIn Pulse. Gary wrote, "Are LinkedIn Endorsing Serial Plagiarists? Attack on the Clones." That post inspired me to write this one.
2. I recently did the math. There is the equivalent of some 150,000 active authors on the Pulse platform. That isn't a huge number compared to total membership. Still, it's a significant number.
3. Expect Some duplication of effort Many people are reading and writing on LinkedIn. It is inevitable that the same topic will inspire different people. Those people may approach it in a similar manner. Writing styles may also be similar.
4. Similar happens. A nearly identical copy does not! Accidental similarities can happen. It happened with me and Trent Selbrede. Trent wrote a post. A couple of days later I wrote a similar one, although I hadn't read Trent's post. It happens. It happens more between prolific writers. To be honest, I was a little pissed off at Trent until I realized that he published his post first. I'm sure Trent was asking questions from his side. Now that I think of it, I'm surprised that it hasn't happened more often
5. Let me introduce you to an old classmate of mine. I'll call this old classmate, "Steve," because that's his name. 
6. Steve always got great grades on papers and such. I thought he was a great writer.
7. I did the same thing, sort of I took copious notes. I did my research. I wrote my papers. I took great care not to contradict the professor. I agreed with anything the professor had published, said, or even hinted about. Don't judge me. I learned early on that in academia to disagree is to be wrong. The grade would reflect that.
8. I too finished near the top of our class. The difference between the two approaches Steve plagiarized. He added nothing. He aimed at the result and let loose. I researched and drew inspiration from that research. I'd like to think I got more out of the experience, but who's to say? Steve finished ahead of me. Does that mean his method was better? Was he a better thief than I was a writer? Maybe. What does that teach us? Is it better to be crooked? I'm sure Steve wasn't unique. How many other Steves are out there? They are practicing their stevieness in the real world.
9. This is not academia Passing someone else's work off as yours will eventually bite you in the ass. Too bad it's "eventually" not "immediately." Too few people worry about anything that is not touching their noses. We often ignore long-term ramifications. Heck, we even ignore mid-term ones. We do so at our own risk. Just ask Volkswagen. Worse yet, someone like Gary might take offense and call you out. Then his friends will gang up on you. Gary has a lot of friends, yours truly included.  Someone may scream, "Schoolyard mentality!" Yeah, so what?
10. This is not a court of law You are not innocent until proven guilty. This is the court of public opinion. This is the court of personal branding. You are guilty until proven innocent. (Good luck with that!) We do not need proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
11. This is the real world If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck. When we hear hoofbeats, we think of horses, not zebras. If your stuff is much like another post, you will get called out.
12. The Full LinkedIn post may be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/warning-plagiarizers-awesome-content-eaten-paul-croubalian