When I was assigned to read "The Elusive Big Idea", my first impression was that it was going to be a boring essay about ideas and how we are unable to attain them. When I started reading it, however, I realized that it is an interesting essay about ideas and how we are unable to attain them.
I also realized that I disagree with some of what Neal Gabler was writing about. For one instance, Gabler states, "If our ideas seem smaller nowadays, it's not because we are dumber than our forebears but because we just don't care as much about ideas as they did". I agree that it's not because we are dumber than generations past. The part I disagree with is that he says that we don't care. If I were to ask Mr. Gabler one question, it would be why are you so ignorant? It just makes no sense to me. If we try to imagine how far we have progressed since the beginning of the industrial age, it is almost unfathomable to size up the advancements we have made. The technology of today is crazy. So how could we not care? It is much harder to come up with ideas when we already have advanced machines and strategies. It's not that we don't care, its that it is harder to THINK of a good idea.
In my opinion, I think that a lot of the big ideas have already been thought up. I'm positive that there are plenty more creative ways to imagine solutions and fixes to problems. We may be moving so fast with technology and industry that it is just too difficult for our creativity to keep up.
Gabler states that "Ideas aren't what they used to be". I think that he simply can't see that we do have great ideas, but they seem smaller because ideas before seemed like the greatest thing to ever happen.
Ideas nowadays aren't elusive. They aren't hiding from us in the corners of our minds. Ideas are harder to see as revolutionary. They have simply been shadowed by the ideas of the past that seemed like nothing could trump it. I think that if Neal Gabler took a closer look into the things we do today, he would understand this concept that there are great ideas. To me, Gabler just seems stuck in the past.
Wow i totally agree. That is so ignorant of him to judge our ideas. Just because they seem small doesn't mean we don't care. Think of alexander graham Bell and the telephone. If we look at his invention today it seems so small and of no use to us. But who would have thought that we would then create wireless calling, texting, surfing the web. His small idea of talking through a wire became a major part of todays society.
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