Creating interest.
JFK speaking at Rice Stadium about why we need to go to the moon.
For some time now, I have been thinking about why there are some days when everything on my RSS feeds are interesting and I star, delicious or email tons of posts. And there are other days when I find almost nothing to hold my interest and I can get through my 240+ subscriptions in less than 20 minutes.
This is closely tied to my thought that innovation could possibly be a cure for recession, and why a presentation given on two different days can have people on the edge of their seats one day and bomb the next day – even when the performance is identical.
On a whim, I typed in “what makes something interesting” into Google and was presented with this review of a new book by Paul Silva (pdf) – from the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Apparently, all of the above are caused by the fact that interest is an emotion, rather than being an absolute measure of a quality of a piece of information. This makes intuitive sense to me. There are some days where I feel like being interested and there are others where I don’t.
I return then to the question of whether innovation can actually prevent a recession and the answer I would now give is no. Not on its own. An innovation or innovations will not capture the imagination if people are not in the mood for their imaginations to be captured. And a primary byproduct of a weakening economy is that the mood of the people sours.
What is interesting (no pun intended), however, is this:
“What gives rise to interest? Berlyne suggested a set of “collative” variables that he conceived of as causing curiosity: novelty, complexity, uncertainty, and conflict. These dimensions are assumed to have a curvilinear relationship to interest: Something new and uncertain is interesting only if it constitutes a problem that can be solved. Too much uncertainty does not invite exploration and problem solving, just as too little uncertainty sets the stage for boredom.”
This is why JFK’s mission to the moon was so inspired. Because he set up a challenge that was difficult enough to be a challenge, yet was clearly within the grasp of the country at that time.
It seems to me that we need to be interested similarly today. We need a challenge – one that is large enough and difficult enough to create a challenge. Yet one that is clearly within our grasp today.
There is no more pressing or urgent challenge that faces us today than reversing global warming. Framed properly, it’s a challenge that could truly change the mood of the nation, which could make us all interested again (and have some other nice benefits such as the survival of our species). Will there be a leader brave or inspired enough create an economic stimulus package that actually does some economic and environmental good?