ideas

William Deresiewicz on the disadvantages of an elite university education
It makes you incapable of talking to people unlike you; inculcates a false sense of self-worth; offers too much security; and trains leaders, not thinkers, argues Deresiewicz. Also, he discusses the importance of solitude.

Ideas

2005 was a year of ideas, though really, all years are. The Tyee has two articles about the 15 big ideas for the past 12 months, the first covering peak oil; nanotechnology; parliaments-ready-to-govern; pandemics; Web 2.0; minority government; disaster relief (do we need relief from minority governments?) and same-sex marriage. The second article covers international relations between Canada and China; "future proofing" (“an inane and irritating bit of marketing hokum ready to leech any residual value from genuine thoughtfulness and package it as [...] ready-today solutions”); British Columbia's 'golden decade'; the cut and cover method of drilling for Vancouver's new rapid transit line, STV; COPE; and professional hockey's return. The articles are less about ideas than they are about the year's themes, but at least it discusses the ideas behind those themes.

2005 ended with a question from Edge: what is your dangerous idea? I haven't read the responses, but Dave Pollard did, adding what he believed to be dangerous ideas (each individual idea listed here are his wording, but check his article for citations): our civilization is in its final century; nature always bats last; the crowd is always wiser than the experts; the biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred; you never change things by fighting the existing reality; show, don't tell; human beings will be happier only when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again; people will listen when they're ready to listen and not before; and no one is in control.

Ideas Belong to Nobody

Martin Winckler: Les idées, le savoir, l’information appartiennent à tout le monde, et il faut rappeler que la majorité des logiciels qui permettent à l’internet de fonctionner sont des logiciels libres. Interdire leur utilisation, ce serait interdire à cet outil de communication extraordinaire de continuer à exister. Ou ce serait le rendre illégal.

My translation: “Ideas, knowledge, information belongs to everybody, and we must remember that most of the logic that makes the Internet work are Free Software. Prohibiting their use means prohibiting this extraordinary tool for comminication to continue existing. Or it would make it illegal.”

Karl: les idées n'apartiennent à personne. Nous y contribuons tous, nous participons tous à l'élaboration de la connaissance. Mais établir un système économique entièrement sur la notion de protection d'une idée est un système voué à l'échec humainement. C'est en partie une défaite de ce qui nous fait être pensant.

My translation: “ideas belong to nobody. We all contribute to them, we all participate in growing knowledge. But establishing an economic system entirely based on the notion of protecting ideas is a system that contributes to imprisonment of our minds. It's in part a defeat of what makes us thinking beings.”

Dave Pollard on the power of ideas
I wrote a similar list in a notebook of (some of) the ideas that shaped how I see the world. Time to bust that out and write it up properly.
10 top ideas with respect to business and the economy
If he weren't the only business thinker I read, I could more credibly say that Dave is the best business thinker I read.

Largely Irrelevant

Ronald S. Burt: “Tracing the origin of an idea is an interesting academic exercise, but it's largely irrelevant. The trick is, can you get an idea which is mundane and well known in one place to another place where people would get value out of it.”

That last sentence makes me suffer from periodic annoyance.

Weblogs as Locked Filing Cabinets

Dave Pollard has a list of the 10 best ideas that came out from and about weblogs and blogging during 2003. Of the 10, I liked #5 the most (emphasis added): “What if you expanded it [your weblog] to be a repository for all the information about you and all the knowledge you've accumulated, your 'locked' filing cabinet. You control it, you decide what does and doesn't go into it, and who can have a temporary key to what parts of it. Then at work, it could be your proxy, the repository of knowledge that shows your value to your employer and the value you've added to the company. And it could be your resume. At home it could be your medical patient record. Your bookshelf catalogue and refrigerator/pantry inventory and recipe book. Your bio for the dating service.”