Love and Monsters (and Ideas)

I watched the movie Love and Monsters with my friend once, and though I suspect she mostly wanted to watch it because she thought Dylan O’Brien, who is famously quoted as saying “I’m a big root beer guy,” was hot, the movie does a good job illustrating the power of an idea. The movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic near future where monsters have taken over the world and humans are mostly relegated to vaults except for trips outside to hunt and gather supplies, only allowing the most capable among them participate in these trips due to how dangerous it is. Our root beer loving protagonist ends up chasing after a girl he likes after she leaves the vault, embarking on a typical Hero’s Journey. The part I’m concerned with though is when he acquires a sort of bestiary, a book containing all the known strengths and weaknesses of a variety of monsters encountered by a lone surface-dwelling man, including strategies for killing or avoiding them. Everyone in the vaults were always scared of leaving and would often sustain many casualties when sending hunting parties out, but with this book, even our adept protagonist could survive and even kill a few monsters. That’s the power of ideas. A new idea (or new to you,) can help us solve problems we had no clue how to solve. A mindset, arguably one of the most important factors of success, is just an idea you’re convinced of. I have a great deal of respect for people who come up with new ideas, innovators and inventors, and have always thought it would be amazing to invent something that helps people. I’d also like to recognize though, that just like the lone monster hunter can only do so much, and can only really gain the upper hand against the monsters by sharing the ideas contained in his book with everyone else, to arm them with information, an innovator can only bring about significant change by sharing their ideas. I think this is largely what inspires me to write, because I may come up with solutions to problems I face in my life, but if I wanna make a difference in the world, I need to share those ideas with others.