Thinking alone in the world

For whatever reason, there are lots of images in pop culture of the lone genius - the scientist or the artist or the technologist - who takes an idea and turns it into a profound gift for the world. We talk about Jim Morrison wandering through the desert to create the Doors. Steve Jobs picked apples and invited the personal computer revolution. Leonardo Da Vinci created notebooks and paintings in his studio, filling hundreds of pages with profound ideas about flying machines and war battlements. Whats up with this idea of the lone genius? It is a lie. 

For many years, I prioritized the value to build something from nothing. Years later, I discovered the bigger magic act is to build something that really matters - to create profound structural change on a problem, or a set of conditions, or for a group of people. This is the same reason we hire product managers in tech firms, to bring together all the different people and inspire them to deliver a ground breaking change in the world through a product. 

If we think about how this is done, the idea to build something from nothing is misleading. Because the ability to create profound impacts is founded on the ability to discover and pull together resources, expertise, and insights from lots of different places. Creating the thing that matters doesn't happen in a vacuum.

There is a point where one does need to pull away from the world for reflection and to imagine new things. To imagine new things is not easy, it takes dedication.  Anyone can borrow an existing way of living - I want that job, that car, that house. Yet what about inventing a way of life that is less apparent? 

In all the years I worked as an urban planner in fragile states, there were not many people I could look upon as direct role models. I met a few people who did similar work, or had some interaction online, but this wasn't exactly a common way of living or working. 

Much of the ability to imagine a new way of being depended upon constructing metaphors.  In interviews, people would ask about my work, and I'd say "do you like to drive fast? All I'm doing is taking something really boring - urban planning - which is typically concerned with things like zoning, and traffic, and green space and I'm driving fast."

Metaphors enable us to imagine and create a better world, but to create a metaphor, one cannot remain hidden away in the studio. One must engage the world, and learn other ways of living, so as to best give back.