Thursday, November 21, 2013

"If you want a glimpse of the future, talk to a student."

After all, who better to tell you? Anyone younger is likely to lack the expertise needed to fulfill their dreams, anyone older is likely to have less imaginative ideas and/or the inspiration to get started with something new. In a way, kids are thinkers, adults are doers. Students are right in the middle, ready and (sometimes) able to do both.

Most activists are young people, as are most early adopters. They are the ideal target for new products and campaign as after the first positive reactions there'll be plenty of bandwagoning. And who better to create those products for young adults and teens than they themselves? They know what is most required, most demanded, most desired. Is it silver cases, colourful boxes or the ability to multitask? Ask a student.

"Hang on a minute! I asked a few students and all I got were utopic dreams that won't come true for a few decades at the very least!" you might argue. And I concur, many people, young ones especially, tend to oversell the reality. They dream too big, too impossible. Yet, that is not a bad thing, it is what they should do. Because hopes and dreams are what guide them, what lead them to create wondrous new devices, schemes, pieces of art and architecture. It is the passion that drives them. "The whole point of progress is overreaching."
“The popular stereotype of the researcher is that of a skeptic and a pessimist. Nothing could be further from the truth! Scientists must be optimists at heart, in order to block out the incessant chorus of those who say "It cannot be done."” – Provost Zakharov
Naturally not all people can be talented artists or impressive intellects. Some get beaten down by the flow of progress, some strive surfing it. Some just go with the flow, never contributing anything to it. Many are passionless when it comes to creating something for themselves, or for others. Leeches of the society, preying on the genius of others. Actually, not leeches. They contribute resources so that the innovators can keep doing what they do best: benefit the world with their ideals and ideas.
"All of life can be broken down into moments of transition, and moments of revelation."
The people not responsible for the grand revelations of innovation carry them through the transitive times. Without one type of people, there would be no other type of people. Even innovation rarely comes from single individuals, it requires plenty of pondering, holding meetings, proposing, discussing, redrafting, months if not years of fruitful work, leading to a mature and responsible conclusion.
"The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain."
Innovation never comes easily. The wisest are often called heretics, sometimes they are more than just verbally abused. Mostly they are ridiculed for creating something out of the ordinary. But after a cooling off period people become used to these new ideas, and come to accept them. It takes some time, but being a student that creates the world as we shall know it, it's not that bad.