by Bob Carson

Editor’s Note: The USTA website is pleased to present freelance writer Bob Carson and his popular “Outside the Box” features. This monthly series is a menu of outlandish proposals presented with a wink — but the purpose behind them is serious. The views contained in this column are that of the author alone, and do not necessarily represent the opinions or views of the United States Trotting Association.

“When all think alike, then no one is thinking.” — Walter Lippman

The things we fear most in organizations — fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances — are the primary sources of creativity.” — Margaret J. Wheatley

Bob Carson

Forty-one years ago, in a large concrete building in Palo Alto, California, a handful of people went crazy. Your life is different today because of them. The building was a research center in what would eventually be called Silicon Valley. The name of the project was Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center).

The scientists, engineers, theorists and oddballs that worked at PARC (and work is a subjective term) did not have specific tasks. The people inside the building simply came up with ideas for the suddenly emergent computer business. They tinkered, made crude models and drew fanciful blueprints. Their ideas were consistently impractical, unmarketable, ridiculous and downright wacky. It was a spigot of unbridled creativity.

To businessmen, perhaps to reasonable people, the entire enterprise was a huge waste of time and money. PARC was a mountain of un-monetized rubble and unorganized rubbish created by a motley crew. Only a few found promise in this nonsense.

One of them was a very young Steve Jobs; he paid to get inside PARC for just a peek. He came out with the vision for the computer mouse. Xerox emerged with the laser printer. Neither revolutionary product looked at all like the versions we know today (an early mouse looked like a large roller skate). Most people thought these ideas were silly.

Autumn Ryan graphic

The laser printer and the mouse emerged from germs of ideas that were seized by a different breed of people — people who have the ability to harness creativity. This paradigm of progress is true in fields from pharmaceuticals to home building; someone picks up an idea, runs with it, and crosses the goal line.

What does this have to do with our strange and struggling little sport?

Actually, it’s a long-winded reply to a question, “Your Outside the Box submissions are interesting — but really, what are the chances any of them will ever see daylight?”

The answer is — the chances are remote.

This column has been running monthly for four years — that’s quite a pile of unorganized rubbish. To date, 48 ideas for harness racing are archived. Dozens more are in the lab. As far as I can tell, none have been implemented. That’s okay. Perhaps they were not good ideas. Perhaps the timing was wrong. Perhaps they were impractical. Perhaps they did not resonate with the person that is in a position to push an idea forward. It is very possible that the ideas that pop up on the website over the next four years will be nothing but more rubbish. But maybe, just maybe, one crudely designed mouse will find a Steve Jobs that can revolutionize our sport.

Since the column moved to website, tossing out ideas does not even require paper or ink. Not being employed by harness racing gives me free rein to shoot from the lip. Besides, churning out new ideas for the old harness racing game is fun. Implementation is difficult. It takes a special cat to stick his or her neck out and be ready to fail. But if no ideas are implemented, nothing will change.

According to some theorists, the quality of ideas is probably a function of quantity. The more successes there are, the more failures there will be behind them. The foundations of good ideas are supported by the rubble of bad ideas. In the world of creativity and innovation there will often be blizzards of bad ideas before a useable snowflake falls. But even good snowflakes will melt if they are not grabbed by people who can find ways to turn an idea into a viable product.

Part of the blizzard so far….

Pace into the Picture — ideas to upgrade our visual presentation
Neck and Neck — between race broadcast of handicapping contest
Dead Zones — pay more attention to dead air in our presentation
Greener Pastures — expand racing to non-racing states, omit gambling for now
The Daily Dance — one well publicized, very low take-out, race each day
Take A Shot — mandatory three race parlay is the only bet at the track
Windmills — a pep talk where inaction is not an option
Inside the Mind of the Misbegotten — lessons from slot psychology
Digital Dreams — documentary film on new people in harness racing
Noble Knights Needed — pitch in via your computer
All Bets are Off — your entrance comes with computer-generated wagers for the program
A Sound Theory — evidence that sound is a very important stimuli and ours must improve
A Trip to Bolivia — a computer plan to spread harness racing internationally
Equine Fun-ds — make a hard harness pitch to business people
Gaming Our System — cross pollination with video gamers
Strange Rivers — co-mingle and push harness material on the social network
Puzzled — psychological profiles to target potential new harness players
Pay It Forward — social interaction via the internet
Dew it in the morning — only one chance to make first impressions
Venture Capitalist Needed — pluses of large investments in racetracks
Weekend Warriors — the “hands on” experience is an asset
Seating Charts — random selection of drivers to increase odds
Nudity Pays — bonuses for horses racing without hobbles
Fiddling Around — samples of others that have rebounded from bleak days
New Streams — search unorthodox populations to look for new players
Brain Games — revel in our intelligence as a wagering sport
All Inclusive Buffet — your entrance has everything; program, food, bets, etc.
To Tell or Not to Tell? — exposing our dark side may have an upside
Press Our issue — unorthodox ways the media can get a harness foot in the door
Plussed — rant about inaction and non-cooperation
Two Tiers — alternating race days, high purses & good horses then low and slow
Two Times Two — limited, compact, season for 2-year old racing
What’s in a Name — capitalization of the names and expose and exploit them
Level the Field — lottery system for yearling buyers
We’ve Got Your Number — use horse results for lottery numbers
Insurance Policies — a path to reassure good retirement
No Take out Menu — nightly random race that is take-out free
Sound and Fury — amp up and ramp up the action
Celling Racing — wagering application for phone and tablets
It’s About Time — a key to new owners is to physically spend time with the horses
A Dozen Baskets — a dozen programs are open to the public, the rest are not

More Flurries ahead.