“Maybe I’m crazy.”

I said these words recently to a colleague as we discussed one of my far-fetched but potentially impactful ideas for transforming the American education system.

She laughed and replied, “You’re definitely crazy.”

“Well,” I responded, “I may be crazy, but I’m right.” She laughed harder.

I spend a lot of time thinking about systemic change. How should the world be different? How could we make it dramatically better, make things more efficient and effective? I’m honestly not sure why I do this or where the ideas come from. There are a few lines from the character Morpheus in the film “The Matrix” that describe how I feel:

“Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.”

I feel that splinter in my mind, and it drives me to think about how to make things better through systemic change. I don’t know why, it’s just the way my mind works, always has been.

Over the last few years I’ve brainstormed and refined dozens of ideas for systemic change, on topics that range from trivial to transformational, and implications that vary from modest to nearly inconceivable. I think some of these changes are actually quite possible in the next few years, while others are more likely to be considered far in the future, if at all.

My brilliant and sometimes patient wife Sabrina has had the rather unfortunate task of listening to these ideas as I’ve developed and refined them. Often she (rightly) rolls her eyes when I start to talk with a friend about the absolute logic of switching our default keyboards to the DVORAK format, and has a similar reaction about my other suggestions as well. But she humors me.  🙂

She has also watched me grapple with the question of what, if anything, to do with these ideas. A few years ago I thought I might someday write about them and would call them “Ideas for America in the 21st century.” But as I look at history for examples of major social and systemic changes, I think maybe I’m wrong. A better title might be “Ideas for America in the 22nd century.” Today we believe that of course women should vote and that an African-American man can be President. But 100 years ago many people thought those were crazy ideas. Maybe my ideas aren’t crazy, they just need more time to ripen.

While playing 18 holes recently with a group of friends I shared with them my idea for a new golf scoring system. Overall they liked it and thought it was interesting. Then one of them said, “Didn’t you write a novel a few years ago? You should write this idea down, too, and share it with people.” They seemed genuinely interested. So I thought I’d give it a shot.

I don’t know if any of my ideas will lead to change, but I think it’s possible. So I want to share them. Some of them  are just for fun—how can we make soccer more entertaining to watch, or how should we modify the playoff system for college football? Some are about the future of America—what are the likely scenarios for the country over the next few decades, or how should we change the structure of the federal budget? And some are even more transformational and fundamental—how should we redesign the system of states in the U.S., or should we be worrying about a new secession movement in America and even Civil War II?

Am I crazy? Probably at least a little bit. But am I right? Are any of these ideas helpful? I’ll let you decide. When I collaborate in problem solving with colleagues at work I often say my goal is not to be right, but to be clear in order to help push the thinking forward. Maybe some of these ideas can help us think about things more clearly or with new perspectives, and perhaps we can find ways to make the world a better place. I look forward to exploring them with you if you’re interested.

Enjoy!

Click to see proposal summaries.