Zeev Buium

When 2032 comes along (it's just around the corner!), prepare for "all the predictions Demolition Man got right" lists a la Back to the Future in 2015. (And if you don't think that Demolition Man has the cultural theft of BTTF, it launched the career of Sandra Bullock and the second career of Dennis Rodman, who dyed his hair to match Wesley Snipes. So there is that.)

Of course, Demolition Man has gotten a lot of things right already, from self-driving cars to smoking bans to teleconferencing to the rise of Taco Bell, but we're not here to talk about that. We want to discuss how Sly Stallone became a seamstress.

You see, in the film, both Snipes and Stallone are cryogenically frozen and are woken up in 2032. During their time away, they are implanted with career skills best suited for them. For Stallone, it's needlework. Needless to say, tough man Sly would have never tried that skill, in real life or in the movie. (Where he plays tough man John Spartan. Talk about an 1980s name. This was made in 1993? Weird.)

What's our point, because it's taking an awfully long time to get there? For each of us, there might be a skill that we're well suited for, but have never tried for various reasons. It takes a change in environment to uncover it. There! We made it.

What does any of this have to do with Zeev Buium? And who is Zeev Buium? Well, he one of the best young players in hockey, and the first ever NHL player named Zeev. (We don't have to look that up.) Buium's parents are Israelis who moved to the United States.

Obviously, there is absolutely no way (at least, incredibly unlikely) that Zeev would have tried ICE hockey, a skill that he is so well-suited for, if his parents stayed in Israel. It took a change in geography to unlock the hidden potential.

That hidden potential exists in all of us! So go out and try different things. Or you can just sit and reminisce about Demolition Man...