Re:The hypocrisy in Silicon Valley's big talk on innovation
by snowwrestler on Sunday March 10, 2013 @07:38PM
(#5354086)
I like Yvon Chouinard's definition of innovation, which I'll paraphrase as: Invention is the creation of new things, and innovation is the application of inventions to solve problems for lots of people.
I like this definition because I think it accomodates the fact that a lot of products that are obviously inventive, fail to succeed in the marketplace or change many people's lives. Examples include Google Wave, the Apple Newton, etc. It also accomodates companies like Apple today, which do succeed in the marketplace and change many people's lives, despite inventing very few things themselves.
So when we look at the state of Silicon Valley today we can see that there are companies like Apple and Facebook that are innovative despite not being inventive. And then there are initiatives like Google's glasses and self-driving car that, while incredibly inventive, can't really be considered innovative (at least not yet).
I like this definition because I think it accomodates the fact that a lot of products that are obviously inventive, fail to succeed in the marketplace or change many people's lives. Examples include Google Wave, the Apple Newton, etc. It also accomodates companies like Apple today, which do succeed in the marketplace and change many people's lives, despite inventing very few things themselves.
So when we look at the state of Silicon Valley today we can see that there are companies like Apple and Facebook that are innovative despite not being inventive. And then there are initiatives like Google's glasses and self-driving car that, while incredibly inventive, can't really be considered innovative (at least not yet).