Pessimism
It can’t be done. There’s too much bureaucracy. There’s too much red tape. The powers that be won’t let it happen. Have you heard these phrases before?
I’ve always found that my best ideas are the ones that receive the most pessimism. I think the majority of the world wants to believe that the status-quo is close to the best solution possible. Minor tweaks might make that best solution possible and that is why minor tweaks is all that gets a positive reaction from these people.
Minor tweaks don’t solve problems. Minor tweaks make solutions better solutions. eBay wasn’t a minor tweak. The iPhone wasn’t a minor tweak. Blogging wasn’t a minor tweak. If you want to change the world, even in the smallest way, you’ve got to make something that shifts the way people think. That’s what solves problems. That scares these cynics so they respond accordingly.
If you’ve got an idea that people say would be great, but there is too much in your way to make it happen, you might be sitting on something that really can solve something.
I think the majority of the world wants to believe that the status-quo is close to the best solution possible.
This is true, with additional levels – people are afraid of any sort of change, and justify to themselves that “if there was a better way, someone would have done it already.”
That’s the excuse I hear most of the time – “if it’s such a good idea, why isn’t anyone else doing it?” Such attitudes are the basis for indifference and stagnation.
There’s probably some schadenfreude involved as well to those responses, as well as the fear of actually seeing someone else (they know) succeed.
The Status is anything but Quo. The world is a mess…and I need to rule it.