The Value of an Idea

For this month’s News You Can Use, we’ve gathered several headlines that explore ideas and their value.

• New York Times Economics Columnist Adam Davidson recently raised the question: What’s an Idea Worth? He highlights the fact that the U.S.’s economic logic has changed, and companies have learned that the real money is in creative ideas that transform simple products far beyond their generic or commodity value. As an example, his article tells the story about how an accountant moved his business away from how standard accounting firms operate to generate the same output, but in a drastically different way.
• Elon Musk recently announced his latest invention – the Hyperloop – and CNET Executive Editor Molly Wood wrote an article titled Hyperloop: Why Can't We Believe in the Big Ideas? This article questions why consumers tend to become skeptical when they hear about technologies that could help transform the world. She encourages readers to believe in these grand ideas, because technological ideas have already proved highly valuable in advancing our world. Similarly, inventors at IV Lab work to come up with forward-thinking ideas to solve problems that our world faces, such as malaria and vaccine transportation in developing worlds.
• Another example of a big idea providing value is in South Korea, which has the highest gasoline consumption in the world. Drivers in Seoul wander, on average, 15km (more than nine miles) each month just looking for a parking spot. An oil company took it upon itself to identify a way to create a simple, yet valuable, system to locate a vacant parking spot, which ends up saving drivers’ time and oil. Learn more and watch the video of the “Here” balloons.