A charge I think Chicago entrepreneurs and investors should consider

This excerpt from Joe Lonsdale's recent TechCrunch post (http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/20/the-silicon-valley-elite-need-a-culture-of-duty/) got me thinking about the culture of our burgeoning technology community here in Chicago:  "Top technologists don’t realize that they have become their own establishment and that, in celebrating this aesthetic, they now act conventionally. Our society has failed to imbue young technologists with a sense of duty. As a result, with few exceptions, they have ignored the great challenges of our time and chosen instead to indulge self-expression and narrow achievements."

Joe is referring to the Valley, which has it's own very different culture.  As our relatively small community here in Chicago continues to expand and gel, it's up to all of us to lead by example in refusing to act conventionally.  Let's build a culture that attracts starters and builders who think outside the box.  Let's prioritize space in our incubators and accelerators, time on our schedules and financial and relationship capital for those with a fresh perspective on our biggest problems, many of which exist in the unsexy spaces Mr. Lonsdale champions.    

We're surrounded by the highest concentration of Fortune 100 companies in the US, and (municipal and state) government organizations, whose leaders are paying attention to the big picture of what's happening in tech.  But they need the help of trusted advisors (the leaders in our community) to get down into the weeds and discover actionable opportunities.  

Let's build on the awesome job organizations like Built in Chicago, Catapult, 1871 and the CEC, i.c. stars, and others have done getting a foot in the door with leaders in the broader business and civic communities by taking every opportunity to encourage those with the power to open doors to do so more often for unconventional thinkers -- to carve out "think time" for meetings with young companies taking an out-of-the-box approach.  

And let's put our money where our mouth is.  Let's invest more often in teams that choose to attack our biggest problems, and provide them with the runway needed to iterate all the way up the adoption curve.  

To quote Peter Thiel (http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/02/peter-thiel-talks-super-futuristic-investments-and-the-chess-strategy-founders-should-know-tctv/):  "The question I always want people to ask is... 'What business can you start that would be valuable that noone's thought of?'"  

Let's build for the long run.