More People More Better

Archaeologists have known for years that if any society is both isolated and below a certain “threshold population,” they stagnate.

They sometimes even go backwards in time.

Since we live in a super connected, global economy, this is hard to see intuitively.

But if you’ve only a few thousand people, that are separated from everybody else in the world, eventually they will regress back to stone-age technology.

There seems to be some kind of “critical mass” for a society to take off, and start creating more ideas, better “stuff” and more ways to use the stuff.

Gilligan!

If we can imagine only three or four guys on an island, it’s pretty easy. If they don’t have any tools, they won’t be able to make any.

One guy will spend all day weaving together leaves for a roof, another guy would collect firewood all day, one guy would collect coconuts, and the last guy would fish.

Since this would take most of their time, the height of this particular “civilization” would be four guys sitting under a woven roof, drinking coconut juice and eating barbecued fish.

The reason there’s so much stuff is there’s so many people.

Ideas Having Sex With Each Other

People see things, get ideas, try new things, and create new stuff.

The true measure of a society is how much they can share, collaborate and continually come up with new and interesting stuff.

Just compare that stuff we’ve got now, compared to only twenty or thirty years ago.

The amazing thing is that most “genius” inventions weren’t invented from scratch. They were merely slight improvements over what already existed.

Make It A Bit Better

When you look upon the world with curiosity, creativity and imagination, there’s no telling what YOU can come up with.

First, simply appreciate what you’ve got, and what’s available to you.

Then just let your mind wander. Ask yourself, “How could this be even better?”

Many people have gotten rich off the craziest inventions, that came during weird times in their lives.

What will YOU invent?

How will YOU change the world?