(tech) innovation stalls – what’s next?

There’s growing realization that value-added technology innovation stalls. How did ancients invent/innovate?

New York Times started its own Google-Labs-style innovation-driving initiative called beta620. A response to stalling news industry?

Recently, Google’s CFO acknowledged that every single day 15% of the queries Google handles are completely new/never seen before.

Also, many modern financial tools (cheques, stock-certificates, bills-of-exchange) have ancient roots.

Even Roman dictator’s post was an innovative response to demands/aspirations of the time, namely overcoming inter-fighting of magistrates. List of Roman inventions are must serve as examples for modern leaders aspiring to innovate.

Isn’t it time for 21st-century value-based innovations?

time and world accelerated – what about humans?

A roadside dentist in China. By-the-hour hotels.

Everything is fast. Time is faster. We are faster.

World has accelerated from around 1989.

We now started running through time, but we misperceive it.

Running is one important factor that made humans dominating species on earth. We can run in conditions that other animals can’t.

Maybe we actually need to go faster, as it seems the Earth’s day length shortened (by 1.8 milliseconds) by the recent Japan earthquake.

By 2048, which world would we have?

Market World?
Fortress World?
Transformed World?

Time magazine predicts a more robotic future with functionally immortal humans after 2045.

definition of a person who changes the world

From Apple ad (1997):

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. Rebels. Troublemakers. Round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

Schumpeter, R2 and innovation via hacking

There are about (cheers to taxonomic Carl Linnaeus) 8.7 million species (only 14% identified) on earth. There are only one species that could tweet: humans. And robots.

The first human-like astronaut robot R2 awakened at the ISS and already tweets/facebooks.

NASA apparently innovates, disruptively. Does it complement its existing ”high-end” (humans) with “low-end” (robot astronauts), by mimicking Apple’s famed ipod/iphone business model?

It was Schumpeter whose acute insights about disruptive innovation and entrepreneurship are still present with us in works of Christensen, Drucker, …

Less known is that hackers are essential for innovation. Pentagon agrees. Educators too.

names can be cool – kum, shisha and george

Many argue that name is not a crucial factor for company’s success. Yes it is.

Federal Highway Act of 1956. American families on the move, becoming increasingly suburban – demand for cars rises. There’s need for refueling cars, and why not, some snacks – it’ll be convenient. But how to differentiate your company from others with similar motifs? Name. Kum&Go. After 52 years, it’s the 5^th largest private convenience store in America and donates 10% of its annual profits to charities/education.
Fusion of brilliant name and off-the-mill design creates an emotional brand experience. Porsche Design Shisha.
BehindTheName offers etymology of names. Browse George.

Happiness in ancient Greece and modern era

Tetrapharmakos is the four-part cure Epicurus recommended for leading the happiest possible life:

Don’t fear god,

Don’t worry about death;

What is good is easy to get, and

What is terrible is easy to endure

Gandhi ‘s formula for happiness H = R/N (H-happiness, R-your resources, N-needs).

China’s Comm-Party perceives happiness as that which “makes their [people’s] wallets bulge.”

Faisal Sethi read a study which found those who keep “gratitude journals” about what they’re grateful for in their lives were generally happier, slept more, had lower blood pressure, are more successful in their career. He turned those insights into a business.

Devil in Pound Sterling and WebMoney

“Pound” is missing from the infamous “The Devil’s Dictionary” of A.Bierce, first published in 1906. Many of its observations resonate more strongly now than when Bierce first made them . “Money” is:

A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when we part with it. An evidence of culture and a passport to polite society. Supportable property.

“Pounds Sterling” originates in 12th-century. It derives from “Easterling Silver” (the metal and techniques for refining it) which took its name from the Easterling area of Germany, noted for its 92.5% pure/hard/high-quality coin-grade silver.

History accelerates. We now have WebMoney, EntroPay, NetEller, …

David (crowdsourcing) vs Goliath (innovation)

Crowdsourcing is predicted to outshine innovation. According to one research, nearly 50% entrepreneurs/startups are developing “knowledge-as-a-service” models, and crowdsourcing (not innovation)is THE jump-starter. Crowdsourcing has crowdsortium. Innovation hasn’t.

Google crowdsources creating maps in India.

But, crowd-wisdom has limitations and might encounter black-swans in complex systems.

LEGO, which almost went bankrupt in 1990s, changed its “chief-brick,” started an adult line, appointed ambassadors and is back on track – open innovation+customer engagement.

Threadless, MyStarbucksIdea – crowdsourcing successes; Apple iPhone, Starbucks VIA, … successes ignoring crowd-wisdom.

Crowd-wisdom as “corporate/customer democracy” is oxymoron – an intermediate layer filters/selects raw input.

Crowdsourcing + innovation = ?(needn’t be 0-sum game)

Absurd laws in England and disbelief in American Constitution

In England, there are some absurd laws:

It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament
A pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants

In America, absurdity=(religion+politics)/law. Nixon was Quaker, hosting religious services in White House. Reagan’s NS sessions were held in presence of religious scholars and based on notions like Paradise. Bush admitted taking his instructions from God. According to one survey, 65% of Americans believe Founding Fathers intended America to be Christian, and 55% believe Constitution establishes a Christian nation. Hogwash.

Information from religious search engines will show what your startup can learn from religion. Good luck.

Making the world a better place

Mobile-app developer Jonathan Stark is an idealist. He fully charged his Starbucks gift card and posted its barcode online, offering free Starbucks coffee to the entire internet. He asks people to use it or – and this is the best part – to reload the card. His radical generosity pays off.

Check wikiHow article “How To Make The World A Better Place.” Point #1: Try to avoid stepping on ants or bugs. Point #22: BECOME VEGAN.

Burgess needs to get big credit for “world betterment,” as his 170 books/15,000 children’s stories, his column “Bedtime Stories” and “Radio Nature League” series molded us.