Reverse Point of View

This is a good example about talking about things from the reverse point of view, where Erin McKean imagines a dystopia where language isn’t free _{(9 minute presentation)}:

My favourite quote:

It would probably cost the average person a month’s salary to use an exclamation point; semi-colons would be highly discounted though, due to lack of demand.

Why do I mention this? Two reasons:

• I happen to like the presentation and wanted to share it.
• Thinking about things from the opposite point of view than normal can often generate new ideas.

For example, what if New York sometime in the future wasn’t a post-apocalyptic wasteground? What if that heist story was told from the point of view of the victim? What if the hitchhiker was the psycho? Trivial examples all; I’m sure you have far better ideas than I do!