What's your Tolluck Spike solution?

One of the guiding principles behind Mischief is to create “a safe space for dangerous ideas.”??

The value of encouraging, or at least allotting for, dangerous ideas isn’t really because it’s a straight path to bold work, but because it opens a whole set of paths that can take you places you never would have thought to go had you pursued the expected road.?

Let’s do a thought experiment. Say you wanted to improve road safety. You might come up with ideas such as speed limits and seat belt laws. Those are indeed correct answers.??

But if you wanted to radically change behavior and increase safe driving, you would install a long sharp metal spike in the middle of the steering wheel of every car,? aimed straight at the driver’s chest. Now we’re starting to see dramatic careful driving results.?

That was the solution proposed by part-time evil genius and full-time Economist Gordon Tolluck in the 60s. I don’t think he was seriously proposing it, but the thought experiment is as fascinating as it is f-ed up.?

Interestingly, some studies found that safety measures such as bike helmets or mandatory safety belts led to more accidents due to people feeling it was now safer to drive recklessly. Something called risk compensation. Any child of the 70s who’s ever popped in the passenger seat of their cousin’s supped-up Camaro and was told to “strap in” knows what I’m talking about. Pretty good bet you were going to be seeing your life pass before your eyes between the next four stop lights.?

So, maybe a metal spike isn’t such a bad idea. Ok, yes, yes it is. But, being wrong doesn’t make it worthless or dismissable, because it opens the mind to a whole new way of thinking. Maybe instead of relying entirely on protection measures like safety belts or airbags, we use deterrents like an annoying noise or strong perfume emitting from the air vents when a driver is going too fast or tailgating. Or perhaps make the protection measures less visible. Don’t put reminders right in front of the driver that scream this car is equipped with 7 airbags.?

You can see how this type of thinking leads you down a different trail than just focusing on the “correct” answer does. It forces left turns, free from the burden of being right.??

A part of our problem-solving/ideating process at Mischief- aka The Mischief Mindset (patent-pending)- is to ask, “What’s the most wrong thing to do?”

What if a beer loved by non-trendy, die-hard, no-nonsense beer lovers, launched a seltzer? (Link to MGD)

What if we got Kim Jun Un to be a spokesman for democracy? (Link to RepUS)

What if we got people to change the channel during our Super Bowl commercial, or at least make them think somebody had? (Link to Tubi)

What if I went straight into the closing and ended this piece without a snappy ending?