So many facets to this, and I’ll bet that many of us have seen great ideas fall off the table and cried.
Undoubtedly, no single theory is going to cover all cases, like physicists seeking the one theory of everything, but they are probing nature, whereas innovators are facing many moving targets, acting chaotically.
Steve Jobs had his failures, and Microsoft had countless failures. In Jobs’ case, he rebounded. Microsoft was big enough to absorb the failures. (Yes, this is all simplified). And sometimes, you are just ahead of the times, and an idea (the iPad) succeeds when the time is right.
Engineers learn (or not) that there’s a difference between efficiency (great ideas and processes) and effectiveness (selling the idea internally and getting the organization behind it.) Long story short, sometimes you’ve got to work in stealth mode, like the first Mac, spin off a group to properly implement the innovation, or be mighty flexible. The thing that floored me was that Apple could go from a computer company to a music player company and then to a phone company, but it did.
And sports teams often won’t retool until they hit bottom, like the aforementioned German army. Inventors can overreact when their ideas are not adopted, like J.C. Fuller, who flipped from fighting nazis to shaking hands with their leader. Inventors and entrepreneurs aren’t gods. Success has many factors.
Not all ideas that remain on the table are great.
But the board liked them. :-(
Just some observations based on the article, not a theory of everything.
Undoubtedly, no single theory is going to cover all cases, like physicists seeking the one theory of everything, but they are probing nature, whereas innovators are facing many moving targets, acting chaotically.
Steve Jobs had his failures, and Microsoft had countless failures. In Jobs’ case, he rebounded. Microsoft was big enough to absorb the failures. (Yes, this is all simplified). And sometimes, you are just ahead of the times, and an idea (the iPad) succeeds when the time is right.
Engineers learn (or not) that there’s a difference between efficiency (great ideas and processes) and effectiveness (selling the idea internally and getting the organization behind it.) Long story short, sometimes you’ve got to work in stealth mode, like the first Mac, spin off a group to properly implement the innovation, or be mighty flexible. The thing that floored me was that Apple could go from a computer company to a music player company and then to a phone company, but it did.
And sports teams often won’t retool until they hit bottom, like the aforementioned German army. Inventors can overreact when their ideas are not adopted, like J.C. Fuller, who flipped from fighting nazis to shaking hands with their leader. Inventors and entrepreneurs aren’t gods. Success has many factors.
Not all ideas that remain on the table are great.
But the board liked them. :-(
Just some observations based on the article, not a theory of everything.
“Things Change”