It makes sense that accidents often lead to good ideas, such as Post-it notes, Viagra and chocolate chip cookies. During ‘normal’ thought processes in search for ideas, we are locked in fixedness, beliefs, habits and criticism. Accidents easily bypass these obstacles. They just happen.
The first challenge, therefore, is intentionally causing accidents; and the second, no less complicated, is identifying them as opportunities for innovation and not as failures. We’ll start with the second challenge.
Let’s take, for example, business cards. Those usually white rectangles, usually 2X3.5 in., with the name of the card’s holder, his/her position and contact information. The font is ordinary, the color scheme – common – and the practice is gray and predictable.
At conferences or meetings with multiple participants, I often receive a bunch of such cards and by the next day (or even an hour later) I cannot remember who gave them to me. All the cards look the same.
It often seems that being innovative is a privilege of the wealthy. Those who have the time to invent and innovate are most probably not busy with everyday survival. Or are they?
Constraints enhance creativity. When resources are limited or have been exhausted, constraints have a ball; and so does creativity.
For example, lack of access to safe drinking water is a critical problem in poor countries around the world. Every year, thousands of people die from infectious diseases, brought on by polluted water. PlayPumps International has come up with a successful, creative solution to the problem: a merry-go-round that pumps water into a storage tank, while children have fun riding it round and round. What is so brilliant about this idea is its simplicity. Kids at play spin the merry-go-round anyway, so the system uses an existing resource to achieve a new objective, improving the quality of life for the entire village.
If you’re studying political science, there’s a chance you’re going to become a bit of a paranoid. Your mind, striving for knowledge, finds itself flooded with conspiracy theories, false consciousness and the inability to think for itself. Big Brother’s eye—watching, analyzing and most importantly, guiding—seems much more realistic from the high windows of the academic ivory tower.
When you leave the academia and join the ‘evil forces’ of the free market, the paranoia releases its grip a little and you start to understand, consent, and even collaborate.
