Slashdot Mirror
'Innovation In a Flash' Is a Myth
An anonymous reader writes "A New York Times article spells out what most of us probably already knew: real innovation takes lots of time and hard work to come to fruition. The article looks at the origins of new ideas, and attempts to dispel the myth that 'Eureka' moments create change. Comments author Scott Berkun, 'To focus on the magic moments is to miss the point. The goal isn't the magic moment: it's the end result of a useful innovation. Everything results from accretion. I didn't invent the English language. I have to use a language that someone else created in order to talk to you. So the process by which something is created is always incremental. It always involves using stuff that other people have made.'"
You may think my hamburger earmuffs were thought up in a flash. But it took a long time to get the pickle matrix just right.
I have a patent on innovation :-).
Take Nobody's Word For It.
It always involves using stuff that other people have made.
Or, in Microsoft's case, buying stuff other people have made.
I didn't invent the English language. I have to use a language that someone else created in order to talk to you. So the process by which something is created is always incremental. It always involves using stuff that other people have made.
Lucky for us, corporate america is catching on, and they're probably working on a subscription service for that incremental innovation. Because you can't just have un-owned ideas out there, floating around.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Investigation is 10% imagination and 90% perspiration. That's why most investigators smells so bad.
I have to use a language that someone else created in order to talk to you. So the process by which something is created is always incremental. It always involves using stuff that other people have made.
I speak therefore everything is always incremental? Ok Descartes...
Live according to the Categorical Imperative. If the Categorical Imperative tells you not to live by it... ignore it
"If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders."
- Hal Abelson
Thats what the Patent System is for, to corral all those wild ideas, fence them off, and make anyone who can make them work, pay for them.
What are you talking about? If Microsoft has taught us anything, it's that innovation *does* happen in a flash. I mean, it doesn't take *that* long to write a cheque, now, does it?
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
The wise follow a damned path, for to know is to be forsaken.