Sometimes you can find solutions to problems that you have not looked for. This is the case with Sildenafil, better known under its brand name Viagra.

This drug was originally developed to dilate coronary arteries. It does, but not only that.

For a long time the side effects were unknown. When someone began to wonder why patients regularly stole additional tablets, a side effect was discovered: Not only in the heart expands the drug!

The first lesson – openness to new discoveries

Openness plays a very significant role in understanding the world. This means accepting that the goals we are working towards are not necessarily the ones we will achieve. What does this mean for the world of discoveries and innovations?

Contract research, as is often done today, works towards a specific goal. The aim is to achieve a predefined result, to find a solution – for example the dilatation of coronary vessels. By focusing on a single goal, other successes may be excluded in advance. Such research remains closed. – It is not open to discovery!

In criminology, one speaks of the “dark figure” when crimes have not even been reported. I believe that this dark figure also exists in research – a “solution dark figure” so to speak.

It is very likely that we have already found solutions to more problems than we are aware of. They are probably lying somewhere and unnoticed in a laboratory drawer as a “side effect”.

In the creative process, ignorance is a blessing, especially in the early stages. People who do not know how things should be are not blinded by existing beliefs. (Professor Robert Sutton)

Once an innovation is in the world, it has its own dynamics and makes long waves! Today Viagra is the most successful lifestyle drug – but who would have ever thought that whole states could get problems because of its side effect?

The second lesson – Only in the world, discoveries elude the motivation of their discoverer. They go their own ways!

Since Viagra has been around, older men have begun to unite with younger women – apparently especially in Brazil. In the meantime, this has caused difficulties for the Brazilian pension fund.

Paulo Tafner, author of a study by the National Insurance Institute, now speaks of a “serious challenge” for the future of his country, because older men – thanks to the effects of Viagra – marry a much younger woman in their second marriage. Around 70 percent of them even marry a 30-year-old or even younger partner.

Despite all their newly won joie de vivre and virility, however, the life expectancy of older men has not increased significantly by analogy – they die at more or less expected ages. What remains are the so-called “green widows” with a proper pension entitlement to a widow’s pension.

You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to calculate that this cannot be calculated. Instead of the average 15 years of monthly pension payments calculated for the Brazilian pension system, young widows expect to receive their monthly widow’s pension for about 35 years.

Innovations go their own way – as here, where the side effect of a drug for coronary arteries could shake an entire state care system.

So we learn: Openness brings new solutions and solutions bring new questions. An eternal cycle – possibly like the world itself.

You like my blog? Then register as a subscriber with your e-mail and receive all updates!