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January 04, 2006
The Edges of the Bell Curve
Moving forward with the Big Idea makes me feel brilliant, confident, and entrepreneurial. And then, without pause, it makes me feel like an incompetant idiot. Take for example, last night when I handed out my new Big Idea business cards to my book club friends--ahh, a nice moment. Then contrast that with my experiece today at the bank, trying to set up a business checking account.
I initally dropped by to ask what paperwork I would need to open an account (since I'm still in the process of registering with the state of Maryland, I though I'd make sure I had all my ducks in a row), but then got sucked into starting the paperwork right then and there. The idea was to record all my available information, and create a list of things that I still needed to obtain. All fine and good, until the "supervisor" came over after 20 minutes and said very sweetly, "where is your XXXX form?"
I had no idea what she was talking about, and she noted with her oh-so-saccharine voice that "we can't do anything without the XXXX form". I felt like an idiot for not having the form, even though my sole purpose in coming to the bank was to get a list of forms I would need. Somehow, my initiative was turned on its head and I left with my cheeks flushed with shame. Only later did that flush turn to indignation, and then resolve to take my business elsewhere.
So how do I reclaim that bubbly, giddy feeling at being a new business owner? Well, I like to surround myself (even if only virtually) with other brilliant, confident, entrepreneurial people. So I looked to the Edge Foundation.
Every year, the Edge Foundation asks an enormous array of smart people (scientists, philosophers, mathematicians, intellectuals of every stripe) a single question and publishes the results. This year's question: WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?
The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?
My favorite so far:
LEO CHALUPA - Ophthalmologist and Neurobiologist, University of California, Davis - My dangerous idea is that what's needed to attain optimal brain performance — with or without prior brain exercise — is a 24-hour period of absolute solitude. By absolute solitude I mean no verbal interactions of any kind (written or spoken, live or recorded) with another human being. I would venture that a significantly higher proportion of people reading these words have tried skydiving than experienced one day of absolute solitude.
What to do to fill the waking hours? That's a question that each person would need to answer for him/herself. Unless you've spent time in a monastery or in solitary confinement it's unlikely that you've had to deal with this issue. The only activity not proscribed is thinking. Imagine if everyone in this country had the opportunity to do nothing but engage in uninterrupted thought for one full day a year!
A national day of absolute solitude would do more to improve the brains of all Americans than any other one-day program. (I leave it to the lawmakers to figure out a plan for implementing this proposal.)The danger stems from the fact that a 24 period for uninterrupted thinking could cause irrevocable upheavals in much of what our society currently holds sacred.But whether that would improve our present state of affairs cannot be guaranteed.
As the BBC Radio 4 put it: "Fantastically stimulating...It's like the crack cocaine of the thinking world.... Once you start, you can't stop thinking about that question."
But lest you get carried away with brilliance and need a little down-to-earth news, did you know that mooning is legal in Maryland?
Acquitting a Germantown man who exposed his buttocks during an argument with a neighbor, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge ruled yesterday that mooning, while distasteful, is not illegal in Maryland.
[The judge] made clear his disdain for the defendant, calling the alleged act "disgusting" and "demeaning." The outcome could have been different, he suggested, if the man had been on trial for "being a jerk."
I wish I'd known this when dealing with the snooty bank lady this afternoon.
