The teaser on the cover of the National Geographic was “Little Ideas That Can Change The World.” And yeah, it sometimes is that simple, isn’t it? A tiny notion that leads to something huge. There’s a Peter Gabriel song I like a lot called Mercy Street. There’s a line in it that always gets me; “All of the buildings, all of the cars/Were once just a dream/In somebody’s head.” I think of those lyrics often. When I’m wowed by some technological marvel, or some simple device that’s made my life easier in some way. It was all just an idea someone had once.
The products spotlighted in the article are changing the world, make no mistake about it. A purifying straw to give people access to clean water isn’t just a neat idea, it’s lifesaving and affordable laptops for schools open the world up for kids in ways that so many of us take for granted. Ideas are powerful things that can, and do, change the world.