I think you're underestimating how things used to be - you could go into any office, any closet, any coffee shop and find a shit-ton of half-baked, crazy-genius, kick-ass, retarded ideas and projects lying around everywhere in the world: filing systems, carpet organizing systems, outlines for film scripts, unsent letters to loved ones, etc etc etc. Whole worlds everywhere you look. And other people chipping in their two-cents worth, adding a few new filing cabinets, an idea for a film sequel, a new way to think about a different carpet, a notebook system to organize someone else's unsent letters... All this slop eventually thrown into nasty, fetid garbage dumps, forgotten.