Two New York Times articles cheered me up with the premise that new ideas often come from unlikely sources. Janet Rae-Dupree’s 12/30/07 article, Innovative Minds Don’t Think Alike, reports that experts are often so steeped in what they know that they don’t have access to “beginner’s mind” She cites the example of Chip Heath’s DVD remote control with 52 buttons. “People who design products are experts cursed by their knowledge, and they can’t imagine what it’s like to be as ignorant as the rest of us.”

On 3/26/2006, William C. Taylor’s article, Here’s an Idea: Let Everyone Have Ideas, has inspired me all these years because it points to one way to access our collective wisdom.

What I know for sure is that when we gather to cooperatively brainstorm for solutions, we will be astonished at what we come up with. I find these two articles brilliant, of course, because they reinforce my belief.