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I regularly listen to the Long Now seminars about long term thinking. They are a real antidote to our normal to our normal day to day thinking which mostly focuses on immediate and short term thinking. If you’ve not listened to one before I really recommend that you take a look.

The most recent seminar featured Brewster Kahle founder and librarian of the storied Internet Archive.

All knowledge, to all people, for all time, for free

Universal access to all knowledge, Kahle declared, will be one of humanity’s greatest achievements. We are already well on the way. “We’re building the Library of Alexandria, version 2. We can one-up the Greeks!”

The achievements of the Internet Archive are already quite outstanding:

• The Web – 150 Billion web pages
• Texts – 3,125,761 books and documents
• Audio – 1,047,238 recordings
• Moving Images – 595,903 movies
• e Music Archive – 95,367 concerts

That got me thinking:

What about an Archive of Ideas?

There are many stories of ideas that were before their time – think Leonardo da Vinci

What about all the ideas for products and services that started of as one thing and ended up as something completely different – think Facebook.

Then there’s all the ideas that are just plan dumb – for now!

So how would an archive for ideas work?

• would you embargo ideas until you knew they would work?
• would putting your ideas “out there” motivate you to action?
• Would putting your ideas “out there” stimulate a discussion and help them evolve faster?
• Are we strong enough to accept other people’s critique?

Ideas are partially formed concepts, while texts, pictures, moving pictures, and audio file from the Internet Archive are fully formed and edited. Do we have the courage to share our thinking before it’s fully formed?

Related Posts:

• Embrace Ideas
• When Yes means No
• Give your ideas power

I recently saw an article at Yanko Design on a designers “vision” for a Harley Davidson – circa 2020.

Somebody pass me a helmet and a time travel ship because if this is what Harley bikes look like in 10 years, I’m so there. Designer Miguel Cotto pays homage to the big road hogs by keeping the large 883cc engine, complete with high revs and roars. The similarities end there. The design is almost tron-like in execution. Check out the wheel hubs. They’re actually giant bearings. I do see glimpses of Harley DNA in the center chassis but seriously, can you image any road warriors riding this?

What stunned me was the viciousness of the commentors’ criticism.

Hollow wheels: check. Utter lack of engineering know-how: check. Co-opting a brand that would never consider such a radical departure from their established aesthetic, much less one so shitty: check indeed.

This is a generic third-rate set of renders, and this is a designer I would expect is starving, given the stark lack of quality in his work.

and

Its funny…..you can always tell when somebody who is not familiar with the product that they are designing. So in the future safety and comfortability are a thing of the past? hmmm……can’t wait!

But there were some who had an open mind:

You folks need to let go of reality and just look at it for what it is; Wicked. I’m sure it can inspire someone to try something new. I think it would evolve into something a younger generation would want, rather than the old guard.

I was surprised that most of those who commented attacked the presentation of the idea or the idea itself. Virtually no one took the leap and “ran with the idea“. On a site and in a forum focused on presenting new designs and stretching the imagination this was really disappointing.

Related Posts:

• An Archive for Ideas
• Is the Boss always the problem?
• Problem Statement Template downloaded 20000 times.

That might sound like a strange title “When Yes means No”. If you read a little further I’m sure you’ll recognize it. In fact if you’re honest you’ve done it yourself. Hands up, confession – I’ve done it too!

We’ve all been in meetings or on a conference call were everyone is excitedly making their point. What’s often happening is that we’re trying to get an opening so that you can make our own. Right?

So, what do we all do to silence whoever is talking so we can say what we want to say. We say “Yes” – to get agreement – and then we say “BUT” – to move on to our point.

This is when YES means NO.

The reason for raising it here is that it’s a habit that closes our minds to other people’s ideas. We become so focused on our idea that we stop listening to others. What we really end up saying is NO – your idea is not as good as mine.

Next time there’s a “Yes, but” on your lips catch it a stop it before it comes out. If your really mean “No” then say so; and have a proper conversation about the idea or issue. Then move on.

If you really do mean “Yes”, then say it without qualification.

Related Posts:

• An Archive for Ideas
• Give your ideas power
• More ways to share your ideas