Unlimited Possibilities

There's nothing new under the sun. So says the Bible, and in that context (an explanation of which is left for the reader to discover) I accept the statement. Fine.

But where does that leave the creative types and innovators? Are they doomed to simply repeat history, with no hope of every generating a new thought or design? Is there actually a dark, lonely truth at the end of the mental roadblock?

I submit for your consideration the following concept: as more ideas and designs are created, the possibility for new ones increases rather than decreases.

Increases? How can that be? There must be a limited number of thoughts we can think and gadgets we can invent, right? Won’t we soon run up against the limits of thought and technology?

On the surface this seems to be a logical conclusion. But let’s think outside the box for a moment. What would happen if you took a cell phone and a PDA (personal digital assistant), slathered some glue onto each one and stuck them together? You’d get (a mockup of) a Blackberry.

Or let’s say you took social networking concepts (thousands of years in the making) and implemented them with computer technology (barely a few generations old). The result? You’re looking at MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, … you get the idea.

My point should be obvious. Taking two things and somehow gluing them to each other can create a third thing. A successful result isn’t guaranteed every time, to be sure. But when it does occur, you’ve just increased the number of things in your parts box.

The next time you feel as if there’s no way to pull another creative thought from your tired brain, remember that your possibilities for success increase day by day. Just dig deep into your box of parts and get out the glue.