by Joshua Tang

Back in my younger days, whenever someone spoke about the 21st century I picture a world with technology at its most sophisticated level. I see flying cars and super computers that interact with humans by speech. You must think, “Don’t be crazy, that will never happen!” Christopher Columbus must have had the same response when he set sail into the unknown to prove that the world was round. And of course he did more than just prove the world was round, he discovered the New World.

Eight years into the 21st century, the idea of super computers that interact with humans by speech has become a reality even though our cars are still not flying. From voice activation to voice interaction, these new technologies are concrete examples that nothing is impossible.

Earlier this year, I read an article titled “Why the most important innovations are often those that appear to fatally flawed” by Joel Spolsky. It spurred me to ponder about creativity; what it is and how it works. When it comes to creative thinking and idea building, I believe many of us are often handicapped by our own human nature – reasoning. In an attempt to prove my argument, I challenged myself to think creatively and the only limitation was there were no limitations.

The fear in attempting to come up with a great innovation or creative concept is always there. You never know if you will ever succeed. And the greatest difficulty is not being able to differentiate creativity from sheer stupidity or fantasy.

But this should never be a reason for us to give up. Thomson Edison once said that you should not stop at the 999th time because it might just be the 1000th time that you will succeed.

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JOSHUA TANG
Writer
TAXI Design Network

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