Box UK: BBC Innovation Labs Blog

There are just over 5 weeks to go before Claire and I attend the labs in mid-Wales, to have our idea analysed, ripped-apart, built back up, and ultimately assessed for commission by the BBC.

We’ve decided to get together once or twice before the labs, for some preparation: find the potential holes in the idea, plug them, and evolve the scope into something even more desirable and useful. I’ll be snowboarding next week, so these meetings will have to wait until early April, but my trip does present me with a possible opportunity.

Our labs project largely concerns preemptive notifications of changes to your plans, be they your daily commute or a holiday. My trip will involve car travel, flight, bus and train (and a reliance on weather), so in theory the probability that it won’t all go to-plan is quite high: some multiple of the number of sub-trips (and their individual reliability records). It will be interesting to see if any of the difficulties I face could have been pre-empted: if I could have avoided them given more timely knowledge.

Which brings me on to a personal dilemma.

Knowledge Is Power, as we’ve all been told, but the unknown is also kind-of fun… For example, I’ve always avoided online dating services – not because I don’t believe that they work for a lot of people – but because I’m a fan of serendipity. It’s not that I believe in fate – anyone who knows me will attest that I am the least spiritual, superstitious person they know – but I like the role that chance plays in life. After all, life is here very much ‘by chance’ anyway – when you analyse the odds – so why not roll with it?

Although ask me again next week – when I’m stuck in traffic trying to get to the airport in time for my flight – and I’ll curse serendipity and chance: give me foresight any day.

*** Dan