Collective Thinking – Part 1

My friend Andrew and I had an interesting conversation about collective thinking. So you can understand our different points of view, he is a medical student, and I am an international business student.

We began realizing that our business world and even our non-business (medical, law, philosophy, history, any subject really) has been following both a telescoping and an exponential growth rate.

Telescoping Exponential

In the history of sciences and new knowledge, we can take some of the greatest minds in history: Galileo, Pythagoras, Newton, any great mind from the renaissance or before the 20th Century. All of these men were experts in not just one field, but many. Galileo is remembered as a premier astronomer, but was also a physicist and mathematician, amongst others. Pythagoras was a philosopher and a mathematician. These men were the best in more than just one thing leading to the basis of so much science in today’s ever-evolving world. This is the telescoping point of view, few people with a vast amount of knowledge on many different concepts.

Today though, this is being reversed. We have many people with very intricate and specific niche topics. You can go out today and look for a marketing agency and find a marketing agency dealing with just publicity or just advertising, they are a specific set of people with a small focus and they’re damn good at it. Same goes for science, you will find a neurologist, radiologist, podiatrist, the list is almost infinite, hell there’s probably even a doctor for just your femur (yes I am exaggerating). You see where I’m going with this.

Graphically it would look like this:

This general overview of specific concepts that used to be held by so few people who knew many things, is now backwards. More people know fewer things, but they’re better at them! That is the defining factor.

In the end what this ends up happening, is that the individual knowledge becomes so high, that the level of growth become a sky rocket. If you take a look at any economical graph or a world economics graph over the past centuries, the growth is exponential.

Image source: dinocrat.com

What does it all mean?

The more we grow, the more specific we get. The more specific we get the more we can dedicate research to individual topics and get to new heights in research, levels of income, and best of all for your business, more revenue!

Take this YouTube video for example, part of the inspiration for this post:

Stick around next week for the followup on this post: Collective Thinking – Cloud Minds

You’re Better Off a Fisherman

What a nonsensical title, right? Well, not entirely.

The parable of the fisherman is one some people know and some people have absolutely zero idea about it. After having lived in Guadalajara, Mexico for about 6 years, living near and talking to people from these small little fishing villages, you learn an interesting bit about what this parable truly means. So while you read the following parable, I want you to think about a few things, and leave a comment, let me know how it makes you change your view.

• Where is your business taking you?
• Does this better the people surrounding you or your product, or is it self-serving?
• What kind of problems are you solving?
• Be happy with what you have and explore.

The Fisherman’s Parable

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

“Not very long,” answered the Mexican.

“But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the
American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his
needs and those of his family.

The American asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs … I have a full life.”

The American interrupted, “I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help
you!  You should start by fishing longer every day.  You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.

“And after that?” asked the Mexican.

With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second
one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers.  Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can  then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City!  From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.”

“How long would that take?” asked the Mexican.

“Twenty, perhaps 25 years,” replied the American.

“And after that?” the Mexican asked.

“Afterwords? That’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the American, laughing.  “When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!”

“Millions?  Really?  And after that? Then what señor?”

“After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends.”

Image by S@ilor