Ok, so I don't often get philosophical here - I'm not that kind of guy - but I heard something pretty important a few days ago at the last Google keynote that I wanted to share with my readers. It had a huge impact on me when I heard it and I hope I can do a good job of conveying what I felt then.

The speaker (and I apologize for not remembering his name), was talking about how when they initially dreamed up the idea of Google Instant, the engineers all said it was impossible. Now - as a developer - I know I've run into a few really impossible requests from clients in the past. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. But really got me was what happened next.

Even though the engineers were certain it was not possible, they chewed on it. Then one of them figured out a way to get about 5% of the way to what Google Instant needed. Sure the final goal was still impossible, but here was a way to do a small part of it.

And this is where things got interesting. Another engineer found another 5% improvement. And then another one. And so on. Eventually they made it to the "Impossible" goal.

I know the idea of breaking down a huge goal into smaller, more easily reachable tasks is certainly not new - but I loved hearing how despite the assurance that it wasn't going to be possible - they went for it anyway.

It's something I'm going to keep in mind and I hope you will as well.