Now, more than ever (BTW, don’t you hate that phrase too), we live constrained within our own little realities. Our own little bubbles.

Sometimes we build these realities on our own, and other times we allow these realities to be created around us. Sometimes it feels that we are slowly sinking ever more deeply into our own introspective states, forever connected to our devices, hoping that they can deliver that next Dopamine hit. We are all losing our connection with reality.

We have become a world of electronic drug users, like trained monkeys or dogs, salivating at the sound of a ding or a buzz on our watches or our pockets. Now, some of you might decry this – others might say – since that is the way of the world – what is the best way to leverage that? As I mentioned in previous posts, we have already become the Borg, forever connected to our devices, a never-ending drip just barely keeping our soul alive. Without our always-on connection to the rest of the world, are we still modern, 21st-century humans?

What do we do about this bubble? Do we expand our customers’ minds and attempt to expand their bubble and, in so doing, their minds as well?

Or do we attempt to find more and better ways to addict our customers to our products?

In the end, we have to ask the question: are we doing good or evil?

Are we helping our customers to flourish as human beings, or are we tapping them like batteries in the Matrix, keeping them drugged and happy, and we siphon their money from their wallets? But who says that we can’t do both simultaneously – can we revise or devise our products to uplift humans instead of exploiting them? Are there ways to revise and devise a new set of products and services which uplift our customers while at the same time staying profitable?

This, if you ask me, is what ideation is all about. It’s about developing new to the world products and services that enrich our prospects and customers’ lives. This happens a lot in our targeted IP ideation sessions. Since the sessions’ goal is NOT to develop a product that has an immediate benefit to our customer, we would be able to build a “billion-dollar product,” focusing on the 3 elements of patentability, coincidentally line up with human desires.

These are novelty, or has it ever been done before (humans love that – we love the new) is it useful (does it fulfill a human desire – can I use this for anything?), and is it just an extension of something that’s been done before (otherwise known as bor-ring)? Notice how the profit motive is conspicuously missing – we are virtually developing products for the greater good of humanity – sort of a real live version of Google’s Don’t Be Evil.

We are working on “denting the universe” over “fleecing our humans.” Wouldn’t it be great if we all placed human flourishing over profits? Prioritizing happiness pays.