"Please, do this task in a mediocre way. Yes, I know the way we do it makes no sense and causes problems for everyone, but that's the way we've always done it, so please don't bother trying to make it better. Thank you." What a horrid attitude.
I know, I know, everyone thinks that their way is the best way, and we all have to put up with some amount of bullshit to get by in life. But maybe that's not really true. Maybe our government wouldn't be so corrupt and bloated if more people would just stand up for intelligence and decency more often. I'm pretty sure our founding fathers would be horrified at what America has become. Maybe the salaries of CEOs wouldn't be 380 times larger than the average worker's pay if people wouldn't stand for it. What separates people at the top from people in the middle and at the bottom? Willpower, ruthlessness, perseverance, intelligence, luck... I'm sure that all of those things play a big part. But there are plenty of top-level executives who make terrible decisions, crash-and-burn, drive their companies into the ground. And yet it seems like a lot of them are able to go from one high-level position to the next, no matter how bad their track record is. So what does that mean? It means there is room for improvement. If there is a lot of bullshit in the world, and too many people put up with it, then there is something that can be done. Unfortunately, growth is usually painful. Everything always boils down to a cost-benefit ratio. Hopefully more people will soon see that the cost of putting up with idiocy (in government, business, bureaucracy) far outweighs the "benefit" of not needing to work to make things better. Laziness and inertia are strong factors in whether or not something gets done, but drive and experimentation/change are the way to make awesome things happen.
Where can I find people who think like this?!?!
Interestingly, the people who come closest are my best friends from middle school and high school. I guess that makes sense because we were together during a very formative period in our lives...even though I have some incredibly great friends from college, they're on relatively different wavelengths. My best friends from childhood would make great business partners; they're passionate, brilliant people who are capable of getting things done and making great contributions to the world. But sadly, they also have their own life paths to deal with. Not everyone is at my disposal. They're in grad school, or busy with intense jobs...even if they had free time, their interests aren't completely aligned with mine anyway.
It seems like, if I want to do something entrepreneurial or mind-blowing, I need to start on my own. And then, if I can lay good groundwork, maybe the people I'm looking for will see it as a beacon.
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