Einstein said that once, pretty smart guy. I remember days in school where memorization was the method to learning. The teacher says something, the student repeats, and the test questions were all the same memorization tasks required during class. At this point in our culture have we gotten to a point where human long term memory is no longer necessary?

It used to be that tribal history and methods for hunting food were passed down through oral traditions. Anymore I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast, let alone the history of my country. In only a few moments I can open a web browser and find the answer to almost any of life’s questions. Directions on how to live better, how to ride a bike, even a do it yourselfers guide to making a biodiesel engine.

What Einstein said, taking things out of context to some degree, gives us a framework to think of new applications. We have the information; over the last 20 years or so all of mankind has populated the internet with more information than any one of us could hope to learn in a lifetime. We have the technology to access that information; Phones are being packaged with faster processors, faster network capabilities, larger storage capacities.

Remembering verbatim has lost it’s place as the cornerstone of education, and has been replaced with having the skills to research and find the answers you need. Google makes a living making sense of the vast sea of information on the internet, how can we build on what Google has done and make it better?

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The hardest thing in the world to do is to sit down and try to think of something new and exciting.  What is it that inspires programmers to write software?  I know for some it’s the wind between their cheeks, but for the apps that are actually useful what is it that lit the bulb?

It’s an interesting process because it requires the person to be both analytical and creative. Generally when an idea strikes me it’s when I’m doing something away from my computer, and I’m doing something involved in the real world.  It’s that “Man . . . I wish I had access to that information right now”, or “Man . . . I wish my phone could do this, it would save me so much time”.  The biggest problem is taking one of those ideas and really running with it.

A single idea, if it is right, saves us the labor of an infinity of experiences.

-Jacques Maritain

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