“I recently talked with someone who said, if you’re an entrepreneur, you should find an idea, build it out, and spend at least 5 years fully dedicated to that idea. At the end of five years, if the idea is working or not working, move on to the next big one. That means, if a typical person works 45 years, they have nine ideas they will work on in their lifetime. Nine. It isn’t that large of a number. And of those nine, how many of your ideas will truly impact society for the better?” - jayparkinsonmd: The issue that hit me the hardest was that in 1829 criminologists were dealing with the exact same issues as we are today— how best to rehabilitate criminals. We’ve got the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, but have very little idea how to fix crime. It’s a big fat hairy problem. And 200 years later, we’re really no closer to the solution than we were in 1829. In fact, it’s worse. The rates of criminality needing rehabilitation are astronomically higher. How many other problems in our society will we be no closer to the solution 200 years from now? How to deliver equitable healthcare to a population of diverse people? How to educate our children? As an optimistic curmudgeon, I’ve always believed in humans’ ability to solve problems. But what if the last 20% of big fat hairy problems are unsolveable because they’re politically motivated human behavior problems?  The real issue is that these issues can’t be solved with theories. They can only be moved along every so often with politics and cultural changes. Two hundred years, on the grand scale of things, isn’t that long. It’s a few generations. We, hopefully, all play our part in helping society progress. But our lives are just so, so short. I recently talked with someone who said, if you’re an entrepreneur, you should find an idea, build it out, and spend at least 5 years fully dedicated to that idea. At the end of five years, if the idea is working or not working, move on to the next big one. That means, if a typical person works 45 years, they have nine ideas they will work on in their lifetime. Nine. It isn’t that large of a number. And of those nine, how many of your ideas will truly impact society for the better?  

“I recently talked with someone who said, if you’re an entrepreneur, you should find an idea, build it out, and spend at least 5 years fully dedicated to that idea. At the end of five years, if the idea is working or not working, move on to the next big one. That means, if a typical person works 45 years, they have nine ideas they will work on in their lifetime.

Nine. It isn’t that large of a number. And of those nine, how many of your ideas will truly impact society for the better?” - jayparkinsonmd:

The issue that hit me the hardest was that in 1829 criminologists were dealing with the exact same issues as we are today— how best to rehabilitate criminals. We’ve got the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, but have very little idea how to fix crime. It’s a big fat hairy problem. And 200 years later, we’re really no closer to the solution than we were in 1829. In fact, it’s worse. The rates of criminality needing rehabilitation are astronomically higher.

How many other problems in our society will we be no closer to the solution 200 years from now? How to deliver equitable healthcare to a population of diverse people? How to educate our children? As an optimistic curmudgeon, I’ve always believed in humans’ ability to solve problems. But what if the last 20% of big fat hairy problems are unsolveable because they’re politically motivated human behavior problems? 

The real issue is that these issues can’t be solved with theories. They can only be moved along every so often with politics and cultural changes. Two hundred years, on the grand scale of things, isn’t that long. It’s a few generations. We, hopefully, all play our part in helping society progress. But our lives are just so, so short. I recently talked with someone who said, if you’re an entrepreneur, you should find an idea, build it out, and spend at least 5 years fully dedicated to that idea. At the end of five years, if the idea is working or not working, move on to the next big one. That means, if a typical person works 45 years, they have nine ideas they will work on in their lifetime.

Nine. It isn’t that large of a number. And of those nine, how many of your ideas will truly impact society for the better?  

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