Mr. Wizard

Perhaps that red straw is the key to everything.

The idea bin was overflowing last night when I left HQ1.  It was not full this morning when I dropped into the office.  AcMo depends on the contents of that bin to defend us from our competitors.  There are days when nothing is easy.  Then there are days when nothing happens.  Today was a creative vacuum day.  Development work on our most recent projects continues unabated, but that isn’t my concern.  My responsibility is to keep building the tracks and to keep the innovation train moving forward regardless of the obstacles.

That gives me an idea for a new innovation:  an all-terrain train. Removing the requirement for tracks would make trains run quieter, increase productivity, and allow them to take more direct routes to their destinations.  I will send this idea to the research department for further study and feasibility calculations.  I’m excited again.

I relish the challenge and the responsibility that accompanies being the chief innovation officer, but it is hard to get it correct all of the time.  The staff thinks I’m some kind of idea wizard, and I can’t let them know that I never went to wizard school.  The last few spells I tried to perform did not go as planned, and eye of newt is a rare and expensive commodity.  We can’t afford to have malfunctioning spells.

Emptying my creative reserve is daunting because I haven’t figured out how it refills yet.  I usually look to the clouds, or hope for a bolt of metaphorical lighting when I’m stuck.  Sometimes I sharpen all of my pencils again just to make sure I’m ready when my mind decides to cooperate.

I used to use the TDCS device to break myself free from mental constraints, but I’m not allowed to operate the device without supervision any longer, and since I’m the only one on staff qualified to use it, I can’t do anything.  My brain weeps when it runs low on creative juice.  Oozing brain fluid is not the most attractive sight.

My thoughts are supposed to remain future focused and my mind open to all of the possibilities.  This dedication causes me to discard yesterday’s events because they distract me from the goal of tomorrow.  Since I could catch an idea at any moment, I need to be ready.  I always carry multiple pens and two pencils with me, but I often forget to grab enough paper.  Today I might stumble onto an idea that would allow me to turn water into a solid without freezing it, for example.  That could be useful for some of our bases in drought stricken California.  I could then ship blocks of water.

Returning this new undiscovered solid back to a liquid might prove difficult.  I think the recipient’s might not find it amusing if they received solid blocks of unusable water, and that would hamper the ultimate plan of creating stable supplies for our space exploration missions.  Would altering the molecular structure of the water change its taste?  We don’t want to do that.  This idea needs to marinate in the lab a while longer.  Maybe if I can determine the source of the Wonder Twins’ power I could use that to make shippable water.

Not every AcMo idea or innovation is a winner on the first attempt.  This is one of those times that I may have fired a dud.  I’m going back to work to try to figure out how to refill my idea bucket so I’m ready for the next challenge.  I think we will add a wizardry department to our Wonder School® curriculum. That makes sense because you never know when a magic trick might make the difference between closing an important deal or ending up with a bouquet of flowers in your hand. If AcMo controls the magic, we can control the outcome.