Saw this cartoon from Hugh the other day, which I liked enough to stick up on my Posterous.
But then Charles Tweeted this response, which got me thinking...
I don't know what Hugh's intention was, but I had taken his words at face value. Much as 'good is the enemy of great', as the old saying goes, I saw 'great' in this context as a linear progression, the next step on from 'good enough'.
But is that really where great ideas come from? Are great ideas simply better good ideas? If you keep working at what you do well, do you become great? Or are better good ideas just that - better good ideas?
Process and improvement are important, and do move things on. But history suggests this isn't where greatness comes from. If we look at the (really) great ideas, paradigm shifts and significant human achievements that have genuinely impacted on the world, they aren't usually good done better.
More often they start from a very different place - with a bad idea (as in something that generates the "that's a really bad idea" response).
Obviously some things really are a bad idea - swimming with sharks wearing Lady Gaga's meat dress for instance. But look at all truly great ideas, from the theory of evolution to Post-it Notes, and the initial response (of others, and sometimes even the 'inventor') was typically the 'bad idea' one.
Because (what will become) 'great' will almost always be unusual and unexpected...and so look 'bad' to many. And often they may be right (genius doesn't happen, or get it right, every time). But often enough the nay sayers will be proved wrong, and the world changes. Which is where conviction, confidence and an ability to learn from failure come in. Plain dogged, bloody minded determination.
Maybe then it's not that good ideas have to die for great ideas to live, but that bad ideas need to survive and given the opportunity to grow into greatness.
So next time you're looking for a great idea, why not avoid what's logical and right, and don't just try to do good better. Instead, free your mind to think the illogical, counter intuitive, wrong, bonkers or just plain bad.
Who knows - you may not get something better, but you might just get something that ends up being great (if you're willing to fight for it)
