I just watched a program on the POP TECH conference on the PBSHD channel. Think of it as an annual showcase of ideas and projects presented by the leading minds from the business, technology, science, arts, education, and culture fields. (Really, it's worth checking out the website.) Each sharing their ideas and projects and even fostering possible mutual collaborations that will impact the world.

What struck me foremost while watching was the absence of conventional perception. Let me qualify that... in "conventional" I mean the part of ourselves that has the natural (and really should be unnatural) tendency to naysay because we are either blocked by dogma or believe the often misused axiom of "the way it's always been done". That part of us that will stall or halt a project before it even begins... partially through the fear of failure or the stubborn choice to refuse learning something new. (Have we forgotten that most innovations through the ages in most fields came about through some form of deviancy??)

All the people in this program created their projects from the basic "what if" question without being bogged down by "conventional wisdom"... and have succeeded. All of them had ongoing projects that they showcased... and it also seemed as if the principles of each project was being discussed and mined freely for consideration on other future projects in various fields. It was also interesting that many of the projects were based behind the ideas of self-sufficiency, determination and reliance within their various communities. This was easily the most appealing and inspiring concept in the entire program to me.

One of the presenters, Bunker Roy, whose Barefoot College in Rajasthan, India, teaches rural citizens how to become solar and water engineers summed up his presentation by quoting Gandhi.

The program and the quote was just the tonic and reminder I needed to continue exploring the wonders of the possible in the little things that I do do. I needed it simply because I've felt of late like a tissue flailing in the wind.

EDIT: Kien has a new Monday Live post up!