This is either complete bullshit or the next big thing

People have so many great ideas, and they’re simply not valued by society as real things.

But what if money wasn’t the only way to contribute to the commons?

That’s why somebody needs to create credit union that accepts intellectual property as economic trade for monetary currency. Ideafund will be the name of this service.

Members submit ideas, the governing body assigns them value based on a conceptual algorithm, credits their account with money, and then sells those ideas to their investors and donors, who use those ideas to improve the world.

Think of it as intellectual venture capitalism.

Matter of fact, this idea fund can work on an organizational level as well.

Because way too many companies out there are just paying lip service innovation. They don’t actually want their team members coming up with any new ideas. They just want customers, board members and stockholders to perceive their company as being innovative.

And so, if these businesses wanted to put their money where their corporate mouths were, they could start accepting ideas as legal tender.

This goes way beyond a suggestion box, this is an operationalized system.

Need a fancy letter desk chair? No problem. Submit ten new ideas.

Want to work from home once a week this summer? Go right ahead. Submit fifty new ideas.

Want an annual raise? Submit five hundred new ideas.

As long as employee submissions make their business case for improving teamwork, growing revenues, or cost savings for the organization, then they’re valid.

Now that’s what you call a culture of innovation.

What’s most exciting about this idea fund is, through the sheer volume of idea production, employees will submit hundreds if not thousands of terrible ideas. And that’s the whole point. Innovators never uncover the next big thing unless they’re willing to put themselves out there.

As my cartoonist pal once told me, an idea is not any good unless it’s on the verge of being stupid.

In this new culture of innovation, few will call the employees geniuses, most will say they’re just crazy, but every once in a while, an amazing idea will drop out the bottom. And it will all be worth it.

Schopenhauer famously said that all truth passes through three stages.

First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being obvious.

If people are willing to grow thicker skin, then payment in the form of intellectual capital just might work.

What does it take for you to be optimally creative?