Running with Scissors

I’m on vacation this week, and reading the book The Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun.

So far, the main point has been that innovation is not so much the “eureka moment,” but rather lots of iterative, hard work. I could not agree more.

This book has me thinking about much of what we are doing in DTLT, and especially with the “Ronco” project that others have written about (Martha, Jeff, Patrick, Steve)- specifically, how do we move these ideas into reality?

Here is one quote that I’ll be thinking about for a while:

“As great as your idea is, will the culture be ready when it is finished? Revolutionary ideas can be too much change for people to handle. Innovations often need to be explained in terms of status quo, which is why automobiles are rated in horsepower and electric lights in candles. The risk is that a sufficiently advanced idea, regardless of how it’s positioned, won’t match the interests or concerns of the moment.”

As we work on our projects, we need to keep in mind that we need easy ways in, lots of levels of application that offer different levels of commitment, and that we try to link it back to things faculty may already be doing. That will bring the sustainable revolution.