On thinking big

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, you figured out something that would revolutionize the world. Maybe you discovered out how to let people fly, or the secrets to teleportation. And let’s also say that you’re in a position to spread that knowledge to the world immediately. Would you?

Most people would give an enthusiastic, “YES!” to that question. Whether you share that kind of information out of the goodness of your heart, or you sell it to make a fortune, I imagine most people’s first reaction would be to immediately share or sell what they’d discovered.

I would not, because I’ve given some thought as to what that would do.

If we revolutionized transportation, things would change – and in a big way. Cars and trucks would become antiquated luxury items. This would reduce pollution, but it would also put a whole, WHOLE lot of people out of work.

And I don’t just mean the major car manufacturers. I mean the majority of car dealerships, gas stations, and mechanics – just gone. Heck, the iron and oil industries would probably be hit hard too with such a sharp decrease in demand. The shipping and trucking industries would likely take a hit as well, depending on what the revolution was.

Forget about thousands or even hundreds of thousands of jobs lost…making such sudden and drastic changes to the world would leave tens of millions of people unemployed.

I could probably think of a few ways to more thoroughly destroy the world, but I’d have to put some effort into it.

Which brings me to my point: thinking big is good, having grand dreams is great, but always think big enough and grand enough to include the consequences of your actions. I don’t say this to discourage people from trying to make the world a better place. On the contrary, I think a revolution in transportation (for example) would do the world some good. But if this or any other revolution is done without consideration for those whom will be caught in the path of change… That will create quite the tragedy.