What If? A Thought Experiment for Your Sunday
.jpg)
Oh, boy! What a week! I’m tired, and I’ve been daydreaming a lot. I do that sometimes.
Have you ever done a thought experiment? It’s when you stop what you’re doing, clear your mind, and then make your mind take you on a journey through some question or idea that you wonder about. For instance, have you ever tried–I mean really tried–to imagine “nothing?” Not just blackness or a vacuum, but the total absence of anything. It’s hard to do, if not impossible, but it can be kind of thrilling.
I also try that with social events. What if everyone in the world sneezed at the same time? Would it cause a slight fog to circle the Earth? What if a large body passed just close enough to Earth to disrupt its gravity ever so slightly? What would that look and feel like?
You know who else likes to do this kind of thing? Kids! Kids love to imagine new scenarios and then think them through to some conclusion (or until their brains start to hurt). That is the birth of innovation: the creativity that
Have you ever done a thought experiment? It’s when you stop what you’re doing, clear your mind, and then make your mind take you on a journey through some question or idea that you wonder about. For instance, have you ever tried–I mean really tried–to imagine “nothing?” Not just blackness or a vacuum, but the total absence of anything. It’s hard to do, if not impossible, but it can be kind of thrilling.
I also try that with social events. What if everyone in the world sneezed at the same time? Would it cause a slight fog to circle the Earth? What if a large body passed just close enough to Earth to disrupt its gravity ever so slightly? What would that look and feel like?
You know who else likes to do this kind of thing? Kids! Kids love to imagine new scenarios and then think them through to some conclusion (or until their brains start to hurt). That is the birth of innovation: the creativity that