Innovation Day - Blog Launch!
Happy Innovation Day! As a recent graduate with Masters of Science in innovation, people often ask me what I do, so I think today is a good opportunity to elaborate a little bit on this subject. My favorite academic definition of innovation is "finding new solutions to problems using pioneering and/or underutilized methods". Despite this, a lot of people tend to think in terms of "invention" when they try to understand "innovation". This is understandable, for as the comedian Reggie Watts points out: "innovation is a word that was invented 50 years ago”... before that, humans didn’t really have systems that were complicated enough that we needed a new word to describe this concept of inventive actions. These actions—innovations—result in significant changes to the systems within which they are undertaken, to the point that they can be scaled and potentially change the entirety of the systems themselves.
It is my personal belief that we are at somewhat of an innovative crossroads. When you look around in 2018 technology is everywhere, from the devices we actively use to the server farms in the background storing our data. Every day there are new innovations that further extend the capabilities of this technology, but at the same time a lot of this seems like it's being done just to be done, and with great effort. Meanwhile there are entire systems where the focus of design is on the system itself, rather than the end user. I think we have a long way to go in terms of optimising technology for the humans who are meant to use it. This is biggest problem with autonomous vehicles (self-driving cars): the technology to make them work currently exists and they could be deployed on public roads in greater numbers, but we need to figure out how to make them work for all humans—other vehicles with human drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, etc—and not just the passengers riding in them. In this case, the stakes are so high that we can't just roll out the new technology (pun intended) and see what happens. Sometimes I wish that level of consideration was taken when, for example, my operating system automatically updates and changes settings on my computer without prompting me first.
Despite these inefficiencies, we have a lot to thank from technology and the innovation it enables. The value of data and code are on par with money and language. The world is full of opportunities to "remix" and "recombine" by leveraging technological invention. If you can think in this way, and more importantly encourage young people to think in this way, then there might just be a chance that humans will be able to solve the massively complex problems that are rapidly approaching our species.
That's why to celebrate this day I am launching this blog. My goal is for it to function as a place to share my thoughts and musings on all things innovation related. It is my hope that these ideas, if properly conveyed, will add in some small way to the conversations that are crucial to our continued survival as a species. The world is a big place with a lot of crazy ideas flying around all the time. I'm excited to share my take on all of this hope you enjoy reading along!
It is my personal belief that we are at somewhat of an innovative crossroads. When you look around in 2018 technology is everywhere, from the devices we actively use to the server farms in the background storing our data. Every day there are new innovations that further extend the capabilities of this technology, but at the same time a lot of this seems like it's being done just to be done, and with great effort. Meanwhile there are entire systems where the focus of design is on the system itself, rather than the end user. I think we have a long way to go in terms of optimising technology for the humans who are meant to use it. This is biggest problem with autonomous vehicles (self-driving cars): the technology to make them work currently exists and they could be deployed on public roads in greater numbers, but we need to figure out how to make them work for all humans—other vehicles with human drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, etc—and not just the passengers riding in them. In this case, the stakes are so high that we can't just roll out the new technology (pun intended) and see what happens. Sometimes I wish that level of consideration was taken when, for example, my operating system automatically updates and changes settings on my computer without prompting me first.
Despite these inefficiencies, we have a lot to thank from technology and the innovation it enables. The value of data and code are on par with money and language. The world is full of opportunities to "remix" and "recombine" by leveraging technological invention. If you can think in this way, and more importantly encourage young people to think in this way, then there might just be a chance that humans will be able to solve the massively complex problems that are rapidly approaching our species.
That's why to celebrate this day I am launching this blog. My goal is for it to function as a place to share my thoughts and musings on all things innovation related. It is my hope that these ideas, if properly conveyed, will add in some small way to the conversations that are crucial to our continued survival as a species. The world is a big place with a lot of crazy ideas flying around all the time. I'm excited to share my take on all of this hope you enjoy reading along!
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