Google co-founder Larry Page believes people should dedicate 20% of their time to pursuing ideas that seem “crazy and far out”, a philosophy that is likened with the company’s famous “20 percent rule,” which Google reportedly ended more than a decade ago. Page explained that waiting to jump on big ideas is a losing game because by the time something looks obvious, it is probably already too late to catch up. Page also noted that people in the tech world tend to misjudge how quickly major breakthroughs happen, and he admits to being overly optimistic about timelines.“And so I think we underestimate the large-scale change and, also, as technologists, we are always way more optimistic it will only take a year to do. You know, I know I am super, I guess, optimistic in terms of how long it takes to do things,” Page said during a Zeitgeist 2013 talk. Looking back, however, the Google co-founder realised that big projects actually take a very long time to come together. That reality leads to a simple conclusion: you have to start today.“You can’t catch up. You know, if you’re behind, it is very, very difficult to catch up because the people you are trying to catch up to, they’ve probably been working on it for five years,” Page said.To illustrate his point, he pointed to hobby quad rotors. Because people have been working on them for so long, anyone trying to break into that space late is already at a massive disadvantage—a reality he admitted “sounds crazy but probably true.”
Larry Page backs ditching incremental steps for ‘crazy’ ideas
For Page, playing it safe with small, steady improvements is the real trap.“So I think it is important to start now. It is important to do things that you think are crazy. And if you are really spending all of your time on incremental evolution, you are probably doing the wrong thing,” he explained.Instead, he advised setting aside a fifth of your time to explore unconventional territory.“It is probably always good to take, like, 20% of your time, focus on the things that seem crazy and far out. “In our experience, those things have turned out to be pretty important,” he noted.