"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
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Looking at all the different (though some similar) secrets of social innovation, my favourite of the secrets is one of Paul Polak's: think like a child - children have no limits to their thinking.
This secret is really quite extraordinary, just for the fact that we all at some point in our early lives, were able to imagine the impossible and actually believe that it was possible. Alright, in some cases, believing we could fly for example, never quite panned out in the way we pretended we could fly as children, but it was through the childish belief that sparked dreams of flying and led to the invention of planes, hot air-balloons, blimps, and even rockets and space shuttles. And really, who knows what might be still to come in the future. It is from our outlook on life as a child that our passions are lit and we are motivated to somehow fulfill our childish desires and dreams.
Children's minds have no limits for a scientific reason - their brains are still developing, creating and connecting neural pathways to explain the world around them. And because of this - essentially their inexperience of life and its structures and limits - to quote The Matrix, "there is no spoon".
So, what we need to do (pardon the insensate corniness) is "free our minds"*. Social innovation requires the ability to figure out how to put the square peg in the round h***. And if we can somehow revert our thinking to the point where we no longer dismiss ideas because they are 'impossible', then maybe a wh*** lot can be done.
*wow - so many lines from The Matrix kept popping up in my head as I was writing this.....serious restraint went into not pulling out more quotes!
This secret is really quite extraordinary, just for the fact that we all at some point in our early lives, were able to imagine the impossible and actually believe that it was possible. Alright, in some cases, believing we could fly for example, never quite panned out in the way we pretended we could fly as children, but it was through the childish belief that sparked dreams of flying and led to the invention of planes, hot air-balloons, blimps, and even rockets and space shuttles. And really, who knows what might be still to come in the future. It is from our outlook on life as a child that our passions are lit and we are motivated to somehow fulfill our childish desires and dreams.
Children's minds have no limits for a scientific reason - their brains are still developing, creating and connecting neural pathways to explain the world around them. And because of this - essentially their inexperience of life and its structures and limits - to quote The Matrix, "there is no spoon".
So, what we need to do (pardon the insensate corniness) is "free our minds"*. Social innovation requires the ability to figure out how to put the square peg in the round h***. And if we can somehow revert our thinking to the point where we no longer dismiss ideas because they are 'impossible', then maybe a wh*** lot can be done.
*wow - so many lines from The Matrix kept popping up in my head as I was writing this.....serious restraint went into not pulling out more quotes!
Views: 12
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Comment by Chelsea Howe on March 29, 2010 at 12:25am
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I chose the same line for similar reasons, but I think you did a much better job of capturing the spark that children had. In a weird way, reading this almost brought me back to those invincible, unlimited days. Thanks for a great post :)
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Comment by Christian Brumm on March 29, 2010 at 9:41am
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Good line and good job capturing children's spark!
A scene from yesterday resonates in my head. I was going by tram and there was this young father sitting there with his baby son in a buggy. The kid's eyes were open wide while he was looking at the things moving by in wonder. You could see unfiltered reactions on his face while he was discovering all these fascinating things out there.
In comparison, the father's face looked like a mask. He had the very same look on this face all the time and seemed kind of bored.
However, I was delighted to see that when he looked at and talked to his son, his face would light up and was able to show lots of emotions too.
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Comment by Vivien on March 29, 2010 at 2:47pm
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@Chelsea: Thanks! It obviously is possible to recapture those thoughts from the days of unlimitedness, but I think what we're somehow going to have to do is figure out how more people can regain that level of freedom in their thinking - not just a select few...
@Christian: Ha! I know what you mean - I remember my own memories of being on the train and looking out the front car - it was the first step in imagining you were actually running so fast! And that is true, too - something I've actually seen a lot at my work...Parents seem to spark a bit themselves when engaging with their children....maybe there's something that needs to be examined?
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Comment by John D. Boyden on May 18, 2010 at 10:51pm
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lol i totally agree! Very well written!
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