プラス アルファ

Purasu arufa is Japanese for what would be called "that extra something" in English. It is a textbook example of English being imported into Japanese as gairaigo, and subsequently losing all of its meaning to an English speaker.

The connotation of the term is related to incremental creativity. When you come up with a new idea, you're basically rehashing an old idea, "plus alpha." Some Japan scholars see the plus alpha concept as a way of understanding how Japanese artists and engineers work, refining the wheel instead of inventing it. Others simply see it as a cute way to explain the evolution of thoughts.

In other words, your radical ideas have already occurred to others, but that's okay.