I find this weird pattern over and over again. Somebody does something and then calls it an “innovation”. It does not matter how small and insignificant is, for as long as it is something “new”. People will embrace it, because the word is cool.
What is Innovation?
Innovation is when one connects the dots in a way that leads to a disruptive new solution for problems – current and yet to happen. Innovation redefines the current “norm”, reshapes it, introduces net new paradigm.
Learning to make your own fire is innovation. The domestication of animals, farming, learning how to make tools using metals – innovation. The wheel? Damn innovation many times over. Switching from fire to electricity – wow. Pure innovation. From Newton to Einstein to QED/QCD? Innoooofuckingvation. From fission to fusion (hopefully “soon”) power generation? Innovation. Mathematics? Most vital innovation of them all. Sorry – it is – see, being able to abstract stuff and shit, to build models and predict all kinds of crap is fucking innovative and beyond. Modern day telecommunications, going from analog to digital? Woooow. Innovative all over. Antibiotics? Hail Fleming – brutal innovation. Vaccines? RNA ones? Crazy innovation. General anesthesia? Better than WC paper.
What innovation is not is your Mac, iPhone, “self-driving” crap and “smart, AI powered” dildo. Sorry. The first UI was innovation. The first car (the internal combustion engine really), the sciences behind ML, the concept of the perceptron and neural networks – that’s innovation. All the rest is more than less > incremental improvement at best. That’s not bad by the way. It becomes bad when one normalizes the bullshit, when one uses hype words to describe it. Awh, but what’s the big deal, it is just a word… Sure. When everyone is “innovative” – nobody really is. Suggestion – save the word for what / when is worth and consider this – nobody needs to be innovative in order to make good for himself and others. Not being innovative does not make you any lesser than you already are. 🙂
p.s. Using existing cr@p in a new way is called ‘creativity’. Another important and poorly understood concept. It’s not innovation though. Sorry.