We Are The Champions
In the film What About Bob, one of the characters is a psychiatrist (Richard Dreyfuss) who takes on a new patient (Bill Murray) who ends up being quite a handful. The doctor is the author of a (fictional) book called Baby Steps, which he gives to all of his patients. It encourages a mindset on the part of the patient to take things in life in small chunks, to avoid being overwhelmed by reality.
On the surface, this is both a simple and a very good idea, especially for a self-help book. It could be a bestseller if the book actually existed. But it doesn't...it was created by the writers of the film as a construct on which to hang part of the plot of the film. The doctor's character in the film needed to have written a book, and so they devised a simple concept to flesh out the movie.
Ideas are easy. Especially the really simple ones. But an idea doesn't just spread without effort. It needs a champion.
Here's a universal human truth: no individual can constantly remember everything that he or she "knows". Our brains hold a lot of information. I've read several different books on human psychology that contains redundant accounts of the same psychological experiments conducted during the twentieth century. This doesn't bother me, because even though I've already read the information before, I don't mind being reminded.
If you have an idea that you want to see spread, you might think that presenting the information to others is redundant. But spreading an idea is not always about telling people something they don't already know; it can be about bringing something to the surface. The best way of doing this is to champion an idea. You can champion anything you're passionate about. It helps to be first, but this certainly isn't strictly required.
You could champion an idea by speaking in public. Bring people together and rally them around the idea. Write a book on the topic, so people have a physical relic they can get behind. Any good idea is bound to spread, but it doesn't happen in a vacuum.
Not everyone needs to be told, but most of us need to be reminded.
On the surface, this is both a simple and a very good idea, especially for a self-help book. It could be a bestseller if the book actually existed. But it doesn't...it was created by the writers of the film as a construct on which to hang part of the plot of the film. The doctor's character in the film needed to have written a book, and so they devised a simple concept to flesh out the movie.
Ideas are easy. Especially the really simple ones. But an idea doesn't just spread without effort. It needs a champion.
Here's a universal human truth: no individual can constantly remember everything that he or she "knows". Our brains hold a lot of information. I've read several different books on human psychology that contains redundant accounts of the same psychological experiments conducted during the twentieth century. This doesn't bother me, because even though I've already read the information before, I don't mind being reminded.
If you have an idea that you want to see spread, you might think that presenting the information to others is redundant. But spreading an idea is not always about telling people something they don't already know; it can be about bringing something to the surface. The best way of doing this is to champion an idea. You can champion anything you're passionate about. It helps to be first, but this certainly isn't strictly required.
You could champion an idea by speaking in public. Bring people together and rally them around the idea. Write a book on the topic, so people have a physical relic they can get behind. Any good idea is bound to spread, but it doesn't happen in a vacuum.
Not everyone needs to be told, but most of us need to be reminded.