They always say that doctors makes the worst patients or parents of sick kids. The reason for this is that doctors are cursed with too much knowledge. They know what can go wrong and before you know it the sniffles can turn into the black plague in the mind of a doctor parent.
It’s for this exact reason that there are rules and regulations in place that prohibits doctors from treating family.
I sometimes like to think of hypothetical situations, or as my primary school teachers called it, day dreaming. Personally I think it’s a great way to stretch those brain muscles and keep them ready for when you have to come up with an actual fresh idea.
So I had one of these ideas recently and I thought it’s actually interesting enough for me to write a short article about. It’s about the repercussions of a simple wish. I know this isn’t a new idea and some books have been written about the topic before. One that comes to mind was something called “The rabbit’s paw” which I read in high school at some point.
So as some of you might know I work in Sea Point and if you work here (or any other coast line town) you will know that Seagulls are public enemy number one. In breading season they just become very aggressive, very noisy and just tough to get along with (like teenagers).
OK, before I write anything else, I need to say that this is not about anything that happened to me at work and it’s simply an idea I thought of in the shower this morning. (I think of a lot of stuff in the shower or on the loo, I find my thought to be free when I don’t have pants on. )
So the idea is as follows:
I think that if an employee of a company comes up with a great idea, that is above and beyond his normal work, and doesn’t involve a pitch the company is working on and the company decides to use that idea (for profit or not for profit), that employee must be paid a creative idea bonus.
The reasoning behind this is very simple. There are a lot of really creative people stuck in cubicles in large companies. These people can actually add value to the company they work for, but because they know their ideas will just be used to make the company richer while they will probably remain in their cubicle with the same salary they started with, they won’t come forward and another profitable idea is lost.
A good example of an idea like this that helped a large corporate company is Google’s Gmail. When Paul Buchheit started with Gmail, it was something he did in his spare time and as it started to become better, internal staff at Google started using it. Eventually the product became good enough for Google to package it as a product and use it as an ad serving platform. Gmail is now used by more that 150 million people on a daily basis and in 2009 there was hinted at revenues of $100+ million range for Gmail and Google Apps.
Recently, Google profiles and Google Buzz was also integrated into Gmail and it seems that this once small personal idea has turned into the heart of Google’s future social endeavours.
I don’t know if Google paid Paul any for of an “Idea Bonus”, but imagine one of your employees is sitting on the next Gmail, wouldn’t you want to know about it? Let’s make it a profitable experience for both parties involved.
People who know me very well will know this, I’ve always wanted to make kids television shows. As a result I tend to watch tons of kids shows, from Tellytubbies to Yo Gabba Gabba to Sesame Street all the way to those low budget ones where they wear tons of makeup and dance to songs for babies.
I thought of this while I was doing the breakfast thing and thought I’ll share. So take this for what it is..
1. Margarine and Ice-cream both come in those plastic containers. The type that’s tough to crack open on the 1st try but tend to open by themselves once opened, kind of like a snobbish person.
2. Both margarine and ice-cream have to be held in a cold place, but it’s not the best idea to put margarine in the deep freezer (it will destroy your sandwiches), but then again you also don’t want to ice-cream in the refrigerator, unless you want to use it for milkshake.
3. That brings me to my next comparison. Both margarine and ice-cream have a useful purpose in melted form, ice-cream turns into milkshake and margarine turns into something you can fry your eggs and other assorted items in.
4. Both margarine and ice-cream come in a low fat option.
5. Ice-cream acts as a great social lubricant, everybody loves it and it will bring people together in seconds. Margarine just acts as a great lubricant, which in turn can also be seen as a way to bring people together I guess..
6. They are both found in the kitchen, unless of course you use the margarine for the above mentioned purpose, in which case it’s probably a good idea to put it back in the fridge afterwards. If you are going to tell your housemates about where it’s been is completely up to you.
Can you think of more similarities? I would love to hear it!
I sometimes like to think of hypothetical situations, or as my primary school teachers called it, day dreaming. Personally I think it’s a great way to stretch those brain muscles and keep them ready for when you have to come up with an actual fresh idea.
OK, before I write anything else, I need to say that this is not about anything that happened to me at work and it’s simply an idea I thought of in the shower this morning. (I think of a lot of stuff in the shower or on the loo, I find my thought to be free when I don’t have pants on. 
)
