Solving Problems That Matter Could Be the Next Big Thing

We celebrate disruptive technologies like the PC, the Internet, and the Internet-connected smartphone because they empower us. They allow us to do things that would have been unimaginable to past generations. Investors celebrate disruptive technologies for the profit they promise — or fear them for the losses they could generate. It’s no wonder then that experts across all fields remain vigilant for the Next Big Thing. On the watch lists are robotics, the Internet of Things, 3-D printing, artificial intelligence, and others. But what if the Next Big Thing (or one of the next) is so big, so mind-blowing, so utterly disruptive, disruptive enough to render stock markets obsolete and income inequality nonexistent, and yet is almost invisible? This Next Big Thing is not on the radar because it’s unthinkable. Yet it’s coming because that’s where science is headed, because it’s what people want, and because the technology that it replaces is dismal. The Next Big Thing I’m thinking of isn’t usually even considered a technology. It’s the capacity of communities to focus on and solve problems that matter. Many communities realize that their capacity to solve or successfully address big problems is seriously limited. Communities have been operating in a deficit for so long that it’s become the norm, and the result is a terrible mess. Climate change, severe income inequality, pollution, financial instability, habitat loss, budget shortfalls, excessive debt, poor health, and underfunded education are just a few that go unsolved. Our failure to focus on and solve problems that matter is now so severe that scientists warn the sixth mass extinction event may have already begun. We face the abyss, and that gets one to think. Perhaps radical improvements to our problem-solving systems might be a good idea. A community uses three primary problem-solving systems, which […]

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