Posted by: William W. (Woody) WilliamsA lot of gnashers (as in the "wailing and gnashing of teeth" bunch) have worked the death of innovation angle over the past few years. We won't dig around in that morass for examples but readers may, if they so choose, Google those swampy waters and find plenty of slimy opinion on the subject.
Some dis-innovation gnashers are on the stump simply because, in the world of 24/7 instant media, "if it bleeds, it leads." The birth of innovation or the continued health of innovation doesn't have the appropriate air of crisis and impending doom necessary for a lead story.
Some seem to be conspiracy theorists with a faulty GPS. They are temporarily lost in the woods but will return again to greener conspiracy pastures as soon as they re-establish contact with the mother ship.
Others are obviously looking for quick, easy excuses to answer questions like "why my business failed," "why my career fell off a cliff," and "why life isn't as good/easy as I thought it would be."
Then again, to put the best face on it, perhaps gnashers are looking at it from the wrong perspective.
- What if the place where innovation comes from today is radically different than where it came from yesterday... or decades ago?
- What if the very definition of innovation -- what it looks like, how we recognize it, how it's done -- is undergoing a radical change in the twenty-first century?
- What if, from the perspective of the 19th or 20th century, innovation as it exists now is unrecognizable?
- Is it possible dis-innovation gnashers are digging for grubs under the wrong rock?
Enter: Marc Andreesson. Marc is probably best known -- or made his first splash -- as co-founder and the technical mind behind Netscape: the creator of the Netscape browser. There is a lot more to his bio, he's done a lot more since, and Marc is re-framing the discussion around innovation with a very positive voice.
Marc interviewed this week on Charlie Rose. It's in the must-see category for anyone interested in innovation, the next big thing, or gaining a rational perspective on the current crop of technological start-ups. It's a paradigm-shifting interview if not life-changing for those who only get the negative side of the innovation conversation.
Marc has a lot to say and we should listen closely -- either to the video or by reading the transcript here: Charlie Rose interview with Marc Andreessen.
Be sure to click the "Watch full episode" link: Do it.
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1 comment:
It all depends on how you measure innovstion. If the metric is patents, we lose. If the metric is students' grades, we lose. Globalization has made "open innovation" the fad thing to do. Who owns what is a very important question.
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