Wow, my comments on solar energy really upset some people.

They thought I entirely bypassed the largest single issue related to the viability of solar power as a significant contributor to our “power portfolio”, which was:

“how much energy per square meter is even available?”… the flux density of solar radiation at Earth’s orbit around the sun is a FIXED VALUE… people need to accept it… And no degree of engineering prowess can alter that fact. No technological leaps can change that. Nothing, short of altering the sun itself, or relocating the orbit of Earth… can alter that… You’re treating this like a PSYCHOLOGY ISSUE. It’s not. It’s a “cost/benefit analysis” issue, plain and simple… It will never become anything more than a “marginal” addition to the overall power generation pool…

The rest of the conversation got nasty, condescending, and increasingly irate. LinkedIn is usually more professional than that, but I had to respond even though I knew it would upset folks further because there were some glaring mistakes and I couldn’t let them be marginalized or dismissed as unrealistic, uneducated, or stupid.
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One of the tools professional innovators use is the idea of resources. There are always hidden resources within a system (social system, financial systems, and technological system, etc.). Finding those resources and using them in new ways will allow change to take place.

Having said that, there is still a problem – the resources are hidden – as previously stated. The reason they stay hidden is
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Recently on LinkedIn Professor Phillip asked this question to the group:

My answer was the following: Anytime a significant new energy source is proposed for mass consumption, it faces two huge barriers to entry.
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PART FIVE IN A SERIES – Innovate

Innovate means: develop more ideal solutions, apply them intelligently, and adapt continuously.

We are pretty far along in the series, so let's insert a very quick summary.

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PART FOUR IN A SERIES – Important Points about Best Practices

As we said previously: Best Practices are solutions that have worked in the past and represent old knowledge. Best Practices have a context for success.

If you are looking to best practices, you had better understand the Psychological Inertia of your situation so you understand (before time, effort, and resources are expended) if their context for success will work within your context for success.
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PART THREE IN A SERIES – The 2nd of Three Survival Tools

Previously, we mentioned that both humans and organizations have three main survival tools. The first was, Be Relevant. The second is, Be Efficient (Do what has worked before).

After you determine if you are relevant, you need to create a plan to retain relevance or increase relevant, as the case may be. The most efficient way to go about this is to figure out what has worked before and do that – use past best practices.
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“No one promised you fair,” Mom would always quip when some unearned indignity had been visited upon me in my callow youth. I thought her quite unsympathetic. Her words of wisdom, however, stayed with me my entire life. So what does this have to do with anything?
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PART TWO IN A SERIES – Be Relevant

Relevance is achieved when we add value. Now this is so important, it needs to be fully understood and digested. We are relevant only when we add value.

When we stop adding value, we diminish.

The concept is so important we’re going to say this in a slightly different way.
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PART ONE IN A SERIES – Let’s start with the basics.

Survival is a human’s main motivating force.

Because humans are social creatures, our most foundational survival tools revolve around interactions/relationships. It starts when we are born, helpless and weak. If other people didn’t meet our needs, we would die. As we develop competence, power and knowledge, we apply those skills within and against our social structure. This, in turn, causes our environment to adapt. The most foundational aspect (underlying process) of human survival is to interact in ways that are, overall, beneficial.
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Sorry it’s been so long since we’ve been out in cyberspace. Scott and I have been writing a book with Brion Hanks, a 40 year veteran in the construction industry specializing in safety and risk prevention. The three of us have been applying an innovator’s view to the safety issues within the industry. It’s going to be an interesting book. If anyone has any stories they would like to share or comments to make, let me know.