Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

What was impossible at one point in the past, often is now possible. What is impossible today will probably possible in the future. Change the conversation by replacing “impossible” with a phrase.

What is impossible these days?

• Curing the common cold
• Finding politicians who are candid about their proposals
• An efficient government
• Any efficient group of people with more than three members
• A car that achieves 100 miles per gallon on gasoline without batteries
• A trillion transistors on a single chip
• A working computer program with 100 million lines of code
• and so on…

I find that the label “impossible” limits thinking. Why try to find a way for a large group of people to be efficient? It is impossible, so forget about it. The same question could be asked about the other items in my list. The same question could be asked about a thousand and one items that I didn’t list.

Forty years ago it was impossible to put a million transistors on one computer chip. Twenty years ago that was no longer impossible as someone learned how to do it. Fifty years ago it was impossible to write a computer program with a million lines of code that worked as promised. Again, someone learned how to do that.

Try this exercise: every time you see or hear the word “impossible,” replace it with “not yet known how.”

For examples,

• It is impossible to put a trillion transistors on a single chip
• It is not yet known how to put a trillion transistors on a single chip
• It is impossible to cure the common cold
• It is not yet known how to cure the common cold
• It is impossible to grow enough food to feed ten billion people on planet earth
• It is not yet known how to grow enough food to feed ten billion people on planet earth
• It is impossible to sustain our lifestyle without depleting the planet of energy resources
• It is not yet known how to sustain our lifestyle without depleting the planet of energy resources

I think that using the “not yet known how” phrase spurs thinking. Try it.