Sixth Entry: October 9th
In reading the article “Creation Myth” by Malcolm Gladwell, the major message I was able to pull from the reading was that innovation is made from the failures of others. Not one person can birth a successful new idea, but rather a different approach that utilizes the missed opportunities of others.
Originality and innovation are closely related. We think of creative innovators as people with new ideas, but to read Malcolm Gladwell on this topic is to be reminded of a difference. “An innovator may not be the one with the new idea but the one with a new take on an old idea”. Jobs is the thief in the night and Xerox is the unfortunate fool. Jobs understood that it had to change in a dramatic way before it could become viable. You don’t want to be first; you want to be second or third. Facebook isn’t the first in social media, they’re the third and in retrospect, if you look at Steve Jobs’ history, he’s never been first.
I’ve come to realize this is very true in my Internships. A lot of our working ideas are from that of a company who has failed at doing something a certain way. In order to be successful we have to differentiate. Sometimes it means to “reinvent the wheel”.
