Every year during the holidays I experience varying degrees of an existential crisis. I question my morality, my goals, and whether or not I’m ever going to have a significantly positive social impact on my environment and communities in need. So, last night I began brainstorming ideas that could enable me to for the first time ever visit the Land of the Morning Calm, South Korea, where I was born. As luck would have it, I suddenly remembered a passion project I dreamed up five years ago. (I still have the treatment saved my dusty old laptop.) Back then, I didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle within my grasp. Today, with more focus and a more astute social consciousness, the quarter of the vision I once had has come into full view. How? Connectivity, collaboration, and returning to dreams unrealized.
Our heart’s deepest aspirations are sacred. We should treat them as such. No matter what the size or scope of our creative goals, we should cherish them, nurture them, and not take them for granted. Our dreams needs us. They need us just as much as we need them. So whatever your idea is, large or small, do not dismiss it. It may sneak up on you one day and bite you in the ass.
As Steven Johnson discusses in the video below, “a small hunch” not forgotten can link to another hunch, and ultimately lead to something extraordinary. He found that “the great driver historically of scientific innovation and technological innovation has been an increase in connectivity,” and our ability to collaborate.
So what is the Internet doing to our brains? That’s not really the question. The question we should be asking is how are we using our brains to navigate the Internet in the most productive and collaborative manner possible.
