Innovation is the process of making changes in that which is established; it is the introduction of new methods and ideas, and the replacement of old ones. Innovation can come in forms as dramatic as the introduction of fire, or the wheel, or agriculture but equally it can come in a new way of tying one’s tie, or a new breakfast routine.
Discussion of innovation tends to gravitate towards the latter, and understandably so. The world faces a number of problems , in climate change, struggling economies, violence and scarcity. Innovation promises a way out, be it by hydrogen-powered cars, nuclear fusion, flood-resistant crops or artificial general intelligence. Indeed, this year’s Nobel prize for economics was won for an explanation of ‘innovation-driven growth’, and was lauded in the context of the struggling, and often stagnant, state of the world’s developed economies after 2008’s financial crisis. One key theme was the idea of ‘creative destruction’.
What is creative destruction? Well, it’s the economic expression of the second half of innovation’s definition. It’s the way in which these new ideas and methods replace the old ones. It’s the way ancient smiths replaced flint workers, and the way London’s famous black cabs replaced the horse-drawn carriages that used to clatter and bang around the city’s streets. It can be painful and there are certainly losers as well as winners. However, it’s the way that an economy’s resources can be diverted away from their old wastages, and channelled into new successes.
This is something I think applies to the second side of innovation: the personal one. Not every human can wake up one day and reinvent the wheel, or harness electricity. However, we can each take some time to examine our lives, and consider where a little innovation could do us some good. Maybe it’s a new attitude, or a new hobby. This, I think, is where the creative destruction comes in; suddenly we might find that having these new ideas, people and goals in our lives helps us realise what acquaintances or pointless self-imposed duties we don’t have room for anymore, and allows us to free up our own time and energy for what we really do care about. This might even be one of those big innovations I was just talking about!
So, you don’t have to solve world hunger tomorrow: just keep innovating in your own life, trimming the parts that don’t work for you. If every other human does the same, then our collective history might stride forward faster, one iteration at a time and we will be all the happier along the way, doing what humans have always done best.
Cameron Brown
Senior Prefect