As I post this, I’m about to give a lightning talk at RubyConf 2015 entitled “Inconceivable!”

The talk is about ideas that are so wild that we simply reject them without much consideration. But when we decide to try one of these ideas, it changes us so much that the world becomes a different place.

In the talk, I give a list of ten inconceivable ideas and challenge people to pick one (or one of their own) and try it. I ask them to tweet their intention to try the idea with the hashtag #inconceivable and then to let me know what happens.

Here is the list:

  • Work with a fast test suite

  • Make a budget and live on it

  • Mind mapping

  • Use a much larger font size in your editor

  • Use a proportionally-spaced font

  • Be a giver

  • Try journaling

  • Try pair programming or mob programming

  • Get completely out of debt

  • Use automated refactoring tools

I can give reasons why each of these might be interesting to try, but I’d prefer to see what happens when you try them.

If you want to play along with the RubyConf attendees, feel free. Tweet the inconceivable idea you’re going to try with the hashtag #inconceivable. Try it, and then let me know how it went.