Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We call ourselves innovators, but most of us are really just iterators

evernote.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 236 posts

Re: We call ourselves innovators, but most of us are really just iterators

#5

Post by obviouslygreen »

This is certainly true for a lot of people who work in startups. However, the author seems to believe that "we" encompasses not just him and his short-sighted friend, but anyone working on a startup.

1. No, not everyone in this position confuses "iteration" with "innovation."

2. No, not all people who are working on startups or startup products consider themselves "innovators."

3. No, all of us certainly do not confuse "poverty" with "lack of startup initiative."

Yeah, most of what "we," in the sense the author seems to mean, do is iteration (at best). But suggesting that this is a standard mistake is a confusing assumption and, to me, suggests that beyond the iteration/innovation mistake, the author has made so many generalizations that by making one point he's missed several that are painfully similar.

Re: We call ourselves innovators, but most of us are really just iterators

#6

Post by austenallred »

I see every innovation as a conglomeration of different things one has experienced. Or in other words, iterations.

This goes to the core of creativity: Creativity usually comes from combining things or ideas that are normally compartmentalized in others' minds. Have you ever noticed how most of the startup founders you know have a wide diversity of experiences to draw upon? Most of them have lived in foreign countries and are well acquainted with subcultures most of us are barely even aware of. The reason curiosity is such a positive trait is because it gives you more inputs to operate off of. The article gives a perfect example:

"A long time ago, when I was a columnist at the Las Vegas CityLife, my editor called me up one day and asked if me if I ever wanted to find out what was in the storm drains under the city. And because I have notoriously poor self-preservation skills, I grabbed a Mag-Lite and headed on down." That's the kind of crazy, insatiable curiosity that ends in you seeing the world differently. That's why innovators seem so crazy, but what they're doing makes complete sense in their minds.

In other words, in my mind it's impossible to draw a line between "innovation" and "iteration," because every innovation is really an iteration of different ideas no one had ever really put together before.

Re: We call ourselves innovators, but most of us are really just iterators

#7

Post by jiggy2011 »

Totally agree. Something that I find worrying is that there is an increasing share of the capital converging at top of society. The result of this is that if you want to build a profitable company, you are best off getting revenue by targeting these people rather than the middle and lower classes. Unless you have a product like tobacco or farmville that happens to be addictive of course.

So there are more people worried about solving problems like "I have a house full of massive TVs but I still need to press the remote to change channels!" than problems like "I'm poor and can't get a job".

The accepted Wisdom on HN seems to be that if you are targeting average consumers you better make your product free because they don't have money to pay for it. So you still need to build the business model around high net worth people (like advertising companies).

Re: We call ourselves innovators, but most of us are really just iterators

#8

Post by clintjhill »

Don't forget to look at industries where maybe there already exists large solutions or organizations, but aren't doing as much as can be done to help those that need it most. Education and Healthcare are a few of these. You might not make billions of dollars improving Kindergarten classes in North America, but you could "change" the world.

Re: We call ourselves innovators, but most of us are really just iterators

#9

Post by kayoone »

Innovation isnt black and white and happens on many levels.

Theres your innovative app that lets you hire private taxis for getting around town.

Theres your new 3D Game Engine that introduces a few new features and pushes the boundaries of computer graphics.

Theres a guy in india building cheap bicycles from cardboard.

Theres your electric car company that pushes our understanding of a good all-electric car to new levels.

Theres your Space company that makes Space endeavours a lot less expensive and wants to put humans on Mars in 10 years.

This is all iteration, standing on the shoulders of giants and all, but its also innovation, just on completely different scales.

Post reply on HN