Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Mark Twain, and 2024

We’re in the final lap of 2023. It has been a challenging year in many ways, but a year of change and new opportunities. 

In the 1980s, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups commercials featured nonsensical accidents where someone carrying chocolate ran into someone holding peanut butter. From the actors’ responses, that combination was shocking and delightful – who would have thought to put chocolate and peanut butter together??? I’m inclined to agree – I do like a good peanut butter cup!

In Mark Twain’s autobiography, he posits that “there is no such thing as a new idea.” With the Reese’s commercials mentioned above, individually, chocolate and peanut butter weren’t new, but their combination was. Mark Twain goes on to say, “We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn, and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely.” Our ability to combine ideas is an inexhaustible resource. Some combinations are destined to be flawed, but others will bring us the next great opportunity.

2024 is upon us – it is almost certainly another year where we will see profound changes. I’m excited for it - it is a year of possibility. We will find new ways to bring together existing ideas and overcome many of the challenges we see in the world today. 

Have a wonderful end to 2023, and I look forward to the new ideas we will bring together.