It is probably the case that mockery ... particularly self mockery.... is the enemy of innovation.
n Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University ([email protected]) http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://www.cusf.org [City University of Santa Fe] > [Original Message] > From: Pamela McCorduck <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]>; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]> > Date: 2/13/2010 10:31:55 AM > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Sources of Innovation > > > On Feb 13, 2010, at 12:12 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote: > > > What an interesting question! > > > > Getting to an answer requires setting aside ALL ideology and doing a > > comparative study, across history and national boundaries, on the > > phenomenon of technological leadership. > > > > Who knows, for instance, how the internet was developed? By Al > > Gore over > > a latte, right! That's top down. > > By a handful of visionary guys at ARPA in the 1960s who were left > alone to do it or fail. Failure was always a possibility. > > Do the following span some dimension of > > interest: > > > > Manhattan project > > Very much top down as a project, though inspired by a small group of > scientists who worried what might be happening in Germany. > > > Lanl's work on Energy > > NSF 's call for proposals on, say, Dynamical Systems. > > A response to what was originally a very bottom up phenomenon (if you > consider scientists the bottom of anything). > > > Ordinary NSF Research Grants > > Widely thought to be status quo stuff. Peer review by people who've > already tried that and "know" it can't be done. > > > The human genome project > > A topdown event until Craig Venter said, I can do it faster, better, > cheaper. And did. > > > Ordinary professors fooling around in their laboratories. > > Those days are much attenuated, if they're not gone. The amount of > time it takes to raise research money is getting like raising money in > politics. Jobs are fewer, so there's enormous pressure to achieve > tenure. > > In short, I don't think there's any one answer as to what encourages > innovation, but there are several, and some of them are pretty > obvious. A lot of work has been done on human networking--Silicon > Valley thrived on bright people rubbing up together in bars after > work, at PTA meetings, at whatever. Ditto Route 128. A culture that > doesn't frown on risk, which means you can fail, pick yourself up, > dust yourself off, and start all over again. > > We certainly know what discourages innovation, and it's squatting on > our heads right now. > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
