The Uselessness of Ideas

Hello, hello. I have made a return to ScienceBlog. In honor of being born in the social media and “immediate-attention” generation, I will share a blog that I most recently wrote on my Tumblr. Not very science-y, but maybe it will spark some minds.

“Okay, I admit it. I’m a realist. A genuine one, too. I think I know the fine lines between quixoticism, idealism, realism, pessimism, and there’s-no-way-in-heck-that’s-gonna-happenism. Lately, however, I’ve noticed that I’ve been quite condescending to those that borderline quixoticism and idealism – people who are impulsive, people who don’t follow through, people who act on “spurts” and in the end finish nothing they hope to accomplish, people who say “AHA! I HAVE THE BEST IDEA EVER!” and just wallow in the idea’s “greatness” but don’t do anything about it.

It is these types of people that worry me the most.

And frankly, if I truly think about it, if I can truly classify each person on the planet, many people would follow under the aforementioned categories. There are too many people who so easily give up hope, and there are too many people who don’t practice what they preach – whether it be due to a lack of initiative, shyness, apathy, or any other obstacle. Take KONY, for example. With all my heart, I hope and pray that the inspiration that is occurring through this global social media epidemic right now will continue. It is beautiful. But will it last? KONY has its share of haters (who are uninformed hypocrites… but we’ll save that rant for another day) and undoubtedly its wealth of supporters, but I hope that the fuse of inspiration will continue to last. Keep going KONY.

There are people who have great ideas – who want to go big, who have large-scale fundraising plans, who want to really change the world. People have great ideas. But really, that’s all people have sometimes – they only have an idea. An idea is useless without the courage to act upon it. And it’s so frustrating to see how people have so many “ideas”…. and leave them simply as “ideas.”

Maybe that’s why I’m so condescending. Maybe that’s why I’m such a damn realist. Maybe it’s because I know, through a realist perspective, that nearly 99% of the great ideas in this world vanish into darkness and go unnoticed. Or maybe, I should become more of an idealist and have more faith in humanity.

But c’mon… let’s be real.”