We need to dream to survive

Without creativity we have nothing. At the pure basis of it all, creativity lets us invent. (So scrap that ancient idea of necessity being the mother of invention.) But it seems we have lost our ability to dream, especially when it comes to dreaming big. It seems we have sat back and rested on our laurels when it comes to dreaming. What happened? Our forefathers dreamed of railroads that spanned the country, telephones, manned flight, televisions in every home, the Internet, landing on the moon — things that may have seemed insurmountable at their time. But they dared to dream and invent — to accomplish their dream.

It seems these days our idea of inventions are just minor upgrades: adding a touchscreen to a phone or adding an entertainment system to a car, or making a faster CPU or an LED brighter. Our engineering forefathers would be disappointed and all like sad face.

It’s usually the little guy that dares to dream big. Why? I’m not 100% sure, but maybe when you have nothing to lose it is easy to dream. He dreams of the new and radical things that can change the world (Macro-Inventions). Maybe a passion can only exist in the individual and not a group or a company. Because once there is something to lose, in many cases money, dreams become smaller. Companies seem to invent incremental inventions (Micro-inventions).

And let’s face it, most of us have to work for a living, but that’s not to say we can’t dream big at our companies, we just may need to find the right company. And look at what companies can do as a whole if they dare to dream. For the last few months, those funky cars that mapped the road ways for projects like Google maps and street view have been creeping around the road. Why? To create a bigger and better database. Wow! What a monumental project . . . and to do it twice!

Or maybe we just need to branch out on our own and dream big. Roll up those sleeves and get going. It’s time to dig in and invent. Get back to our roots.

If you’re working on a project that you think could change the world, let us know. We would love to see it.

Bryan DeLuca bdeluca@hearst.com

To comment on this Viewpoint, visit, www.eebeat.com/?p=5504