I’m traveling right now, so I can’t write a lot today. Instead, I have this must-see video from the always-watchable Malcolm Gladwell: I’m traveling right now so I can’t write a long post. So today, just watch this: Some important points: We get hung up on our technologies: the Norden bombsight made bomb dropping more […]
Most of the inspirational innovation stories that we hear are about technology firms like Google, Amazon and Apple. This sometimes makes it difficult to help people find the connections to their work if they are in less sexy industries, like mining, education or government. However, innovation is just as important in those industries as well. […]
I missed writing about someone on Ada Lovelace Day this year because I was actually teaching my MBA class about a great technology heroine – Jane McGonigal. I love the concept behind Ada Lovelace Day. In order to encourage more women to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the day is used to […]
Collingwood fan and outstanding economist Nick Gruen wrote an interesting piece prior to last weekend’s AFL Grand Final explaining why he thought his team would lose to Geelong. The underlying premise in the piece is that he thought Geelong would win because they were more innovative. Here are some of the key points: If I […]
Over the weekend I read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s thought-provoking book The Bed of Procrustres. It’s a very slow read disguised as a quick read – it’s ~100 pages of aphorisms. You can go through it quickly, but most of them both require and reward deeper thought. I’ve picked out some which provide some insight into […]
Here is something I ran across yesterday that confuses me quite a bit. Take a look at this graph from the Economist: The thing that confuses me is that I often hear from managers and others here in Australia that the reason that their organisation isn’t very innovative is that they are risk averse. But […]
What is the innovation that led to civilization? There are some interesting answers to this question in Why the West Rules, For Now by Ian Morris. As part of his research, Morris has developed a Social Development Index, which he uses to track the progress of civilizations from 14000 BC to present. The index tracks […]
One of the major obstacles to innovation is switching costs. Here’s a story that shows why: after 120 years, the main library at Princeton University is finally converting all of it’s books to the Library of Congress book classification system. This is remarkable for several reasons. The main one is that the Library of Congress […]
First up, from John Maynard Keynes in The General Theory of Employment, Interest & Money: The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones. As I’ve said before, when you’re innovating, you have to break connections before you can make new ones. This is a big part of […]
I recently read an article on BNet by Geoffrey James called “Top 5 Totally Useless Business Experts“. James usually writes an interesting column, and even in this one he makes some good points. But he also uses a form of argument that is deeply flawed. Here is part of the post: Useless Expert #1: Management […]
The first clocks using mechanical movements kept time by regulating a flow of water. For seven hundred years or so, everyone knew that these clocks were invented in Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. No one is quite sure where exactly, as several cities at roughly the same time erected central clock towers. However, […]
