innovation
The answer, I think, is what it almost always is: that inventors are simply extremely rare. People can have all the incentives, all the materials, all the mechanical skills, and even all the right general notions of how things work. As we’ve seen, even Savery himself was apparently inspired by the same ancient experiment as everyone else who worked... See more
Anton Howes • Age of Invention: Why wasn't the Steam Engine Invented Earlier? Part III
“I discovered, to my amazement, that all through history there had been resistance— and bitter, exaggerated, last-ditch resistance— to every significant technological change that had taken place on earth. Usually the resistance came from those groups who stood to lose influence, status, money as a result of the change. Although they never advanced
... See moreWorld's Hardest Problems
Sustainability + Human Development Is the food we eat scalable, sustainable, healthy, nutritious and tasty? Is the air we breathe clean? Is the water we drink pure? Is there a way to produce energy that is relatively abundant, cheap and clean? Is there a way to reverse or mitigate climate chan...
docs.google.com
P&G used to have somebody in charge of what they called commercial innovation, which is broadly defined as selling your product in different ways, without fundamentally changing the product itself.
Rail travel is a great example of an industry that is ripe for commercial innovation.
In Germany they have the BahnCard. A 25, 50, or 100 BahnCard are... See more
Rail travel is a great example of an industry that is ripe for commercial innovation.
In Germany they have the BahnCard. A 25, 50, or 100 BahnCard are... See more
Rory Sutherland on LinkedIn: #creativity #behaviouralscience #traintravel #positioning | 155 comments
When you’re focused on something few others are thinking about, you find yourself constantly making the case to yourself and others that your vision is worth pursuing and worthy of other people’s attention. This ongoing need to justify your work creates a significant emotional overhead.
Yancey Strickler • When Your Purpose Is 1-of-1
What the smartest people do on the weekend is what everyone else will do during the week in ten years
Chris Dixoncdixon.orgIconic successes seemed outright strange at first: Amazon (wait days to receive a product you’ve never seen), eBay (buy beanie babies from someone thousands of miles away), Google (trust an algorithm to answer your questions), LinkedIn (publicly post your resume), Facebook (share personal updates with people you haven’t seen in years), Airbnb (stay... See more
Philip Clark • The end of incrementalism: how AI will reward maximalist start-ups
