“What ends up happening in the world, on a very, very large level, has a lot to do with what people believe will happen. Because these things are self-fulfilling — when enough people start to believe in a certain future outcome, their subconscious ends up acting on their behaviors, and that outcome ends up kind of happening. And so I think it’s so important to put forth beautiful, and also believable, visions of how things can be in the future, because then many people will believe in these things, and then those things will begin to come true.

And, conversely, this is why it’s so dangerous to do this kind of fear-mongering, cynical hopelessness you see every time you turn on the cable news or open up a newspaper — because if people are exposed to that enough, that’s what they will believe the future is going to be like, and they’ll start to act accordingly, and that’s what we’ll get.”

– Cowbird founder Jonathan Harris.

Yet another gem from 60 Minutes, this time in the form of an interview with Elon Musk, co-founder of SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and before that, PayPal. When PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion, Musk set out on his lifelong dream of creating a company that would revolutionize space flight. SpaceX was born.

Talk about having stops. Musk has had too many to count.

But he continues pushing forward, having invested over $100 million of his own money to keep SpaceX moving. A bold push by a bold man.

And those Tesla cars are looking pretty sweet, aren’t they?

A remarkable 60 Minutes story about Novak Djokovic, #1 in men’s tennis. A native of Serbia, Novak speaks about how people used to laugh at him when he said he was going to be #1 in the world.

Guess they’re not laughing anymore.

There are so many Fishbird moments in this 15-minute video, we’ll let you spot them all. But let’s just say we’ve got a new, profound respect for the charismatic athlete that started his dream, ironically enough, at the top of a mountain.

In Fishbird, we talk a lot about breaking from the past in order to create unimagined futures. Children, by their very age, are very good at this. They don’t have much emotional or experiential baggage to navigate. Everything is possibility. The following story is a perfect example of this.

From the Humboldt State University website:

“When Kenneth Boehr instructed his fifth grade class at Border Star Montessori School in Kansas City, Mo. to build molecules with modeling kits, he didn’t expect one of his students to make a scientific discovery. But that’s what happened when Clara Lazen, 10, randomly arranged a unique combination of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon atoms. The result was a molecule that Boehr had never seen before.”

Boehr ended up emailing a picture of the molecule to a chemistry professor friend to see if it was, in fact, a possible arrangement.

The professor didn’t know.

So he did some research.

Turns out, the only reference to the molecule was from a paper published in 1904. But the paper had a different arrangement of atoms. Digging deeper, the professor determined that “not only was Lazen’s molecule unique, it had the potential to store energy. It contains the same combination of atoms as nitroglycerin, a powerful explosive.”

The professor submitted a research paper on his finding to the January issue of Computational and Theoretical Chemistry. Both Lazen and Boehr are listed as co-authors.

“It still remains to be seen how the research paper will be received. Since scientists are always looking for new ways to harvest energy, synthetic chemists might try to create the molecule. If they succeed, they could discover a new way to store energy.”

Chalk one up for the 10 year olds.

A Fishbird congrats to James Cameron and his successful dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench – the deepest point in the ocean – yesterday. Seven years in the making, the descent of 35,756 feet was the first attempt by humans to reach the Challenger Deep (the deepest point of the Mariana Trench) since two Navy lieutenants touched bottom in January 1960.

It’s easy to understand why no one else has tried: at such a depth, pressures reach a crushing eight tons per square inch, the equivalent of an elephant standing on your toe.

Kudos Mr. Cameron for making the impossible possible.

Senna is the story of Brazil’s Ayrton Senna, a prolific Formula One driver whose life was cut short in a full speed crash on May 1, 1994. Even if you know nothing about racing, this is a brilliant documentary, focused more on the heart and integrity of a man who had a will to drive hard.

As Senna put it himself, “If you no longer go for a gap, you’re no longer a racing driver.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Going for the gaps is at the heart of Fishbird.

Valentine’s Day brings with it this pretty amazing video from Wholphin about the neurochemistry of how we love. Enjoy.

Nice video from 99% with Linda Rottenberg, co-founder of Endeavor, about why being called ‘crazy’ is a compliment and how hanging out in the men’s bathroom creates breakthroughs.

For those of you who are familiar with videogames, the name Duke Nukem is no doubt a known moniker in your mental lexicon. The protagonist anti-hero of the mid-90s shoot-’em-up by the same name, Duke Nukem revolutionized the idea of what a video game could be and how far it could go. Quickly becoming one of the top-selling videogames of all time, the game made its creators, 3D Realms, ridiculously wealthy and its fans absolutely ravenous for a sequel.

3D Realms started working on that sequel in 1997.

They never completed it.
In May 2009, the company, drained of funds, closed its doors.

So why tell this story now, almost three years on? Plenty of others have already written about this, Wired being the best journalistic example. But there’s a unique connection to Fishbird ideas (or lack thereof) in the failed story of Duke Nukem, one that we’ll summarize here.

It’s a fairly simple story.

Looking to knock the ball out of the figurative park with their Duke Nukem sequel, 3D Realms set out to create the best game ever. They threw big money into the project, hiring the best designers, the best coders. Every element had to look intensely realistic. Every gameplay moment had to be jaw-dropping. Awe-inspiring. And in theory, it was a great goal. But there was a problem with the goal: 3D Realms wasn’t working in a vacuum. Technology changes so quickly that the greatest looking game today looks amateurish tomorrow. You’re always playing catch-up. That’s where 3D Realms found itself. The team scrapped all of its work multiple times after playing competitors’ games, seeing the latest graphics in action, believing their game had to be even better.

Five years went by.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Fans were screaming for a new Duke Nukem.

3D Realms needed more time.

Another year went by. Staff left. Money got spent. The head guys at 3D Realms went to their publisher, hat in hands, looking for more money to finish the job. Instead, they got sued.

And 3D Realms was gone.

The Duke Nukem sequel came out last year, completed by another company. Called Duke Nukem Forever, the game was said to be one of the worst ever made. It’s the perfect case study of what happens when you get attached to perfection. It’s like a dog running on linoleum: lots of action, but no movement. With unlimited resources and no by-when, the team at 3D Realms basically scrutinized their dream project into oblivion.

At Fishbird, we don’t deal with perfection. It strangles creativity and output. If what you’re committed to is getting it perfect, you’ll produce pretty predictable results. Breakthroughs require us to break from getting it right, and simply get it out into the world.