I see every innovation as a conglomeration of different things one has experienced. Or in other words, iterations.
This goes to the core of creativity: Creativity usually comes from combining things or ideas that are normally compartmentalized in others' minds. Have you ever noticed how most of the startup founders you know have a wide diversity of experiences to draw upon? Most of them have lived in foreign countries and are well acquainted with subcultures most of us are barely even aware of. The reason curiosity is such a positive trait is because it gives you more inputs to operate off of. The article gives a perfect example:
"A long time ago, when I was a columnist at the Las Vegas CityLife, my editor called me up one day and asked if me if I ever wanted to find out what was in the storm drains under the city. And because I have notoriously poor self-preservation skills, I grabbed a Mag-Lite and headed on down." That's the kind of crazy, insatiable curiosity that ends in you seeing the world differently. That's why innovators seem so crazy, but what they're doing makes complete sense in their minds.
In other words, in my mind it's impossible to draw a line between "innovation" and "iteration," because every innovation is really an iteration of different ideas no one had ever really put together before.
It's true. It is very hard to draw a line through what is "innovation" vs what is "iteration." All the tiny things we build sit on top of the other tiny things built by those before us, and in the grand scheme, everything is quite small.
However, this makes me wonder if maybe we shouldn't be focused on "innovating." Maybe it's not the goal (or it shouldn't be the goal). But then, what should? What should we aspire to build or create? Should we aspire to any particular thing? Maybe we should just do what we want and ignore what others have to say?
I don't really know, and I'd love to hear what others thoughts are.
This goes to the core of creativity: Creativity usually comes from combining things or ideas that are normally compartmentalized in others' minds. Have you ever noticed how most of the startup founders you know have a wide diversity of experiences to draw upon? Most of them have lived in foreign countries and are well acquainted with subcultures most of us are barely even aware of. The reason curiosity is such a positive trait is because it gives you more inputs to operate off of. The article gives a perfect example:
"A long time ago, when I was a columnist at the Las Vegas CityLife, my editor called me up one day and asked if me if I ever wanted to find out what was in the storm drains under the city. And because I have notoriously poor self-preservation skills, I grabbed a Mag-Lite and headed on down." That's the kind of crazy, insatiable curiosity that ends in you seeing the world differently. That's why innovators seem so crazy, but what they're doing makes complete sense in their minds.
In other words, in my mind it's impossible to draw a line between "innovation" and "iteration," because every innovation is really an iteration of different ideas no one had ever really put together before.