What I wish I wrote
on innovation

Steve Wozniak developed the Apple computer. Steve Jobs, et al, were business partners. Read the Wozniak history. He did not develop the hardware and software because of a "culture of moral materialism," honed with complicated drama queens. For openers, he learned how raster scanning worked in a TV service class and he used that knowledge to control the scanning electron beam. He also figured out how to make the compact disk drive and even offered it to his employer, Hewlett Packard, who declined interest in it. The Apple Computer growth really began to bloom when users heard about and than ran VisiCalc spreadsheet program on the computer. That program, also required a lot of seat-of-the pants learning and then implementation.

The thesis my thesis adviser wouldn't let me do in grad school was on how Americans were beginning to believe their myths; how we were deifying our great inventors instead of learning how they actually did it. Productive innovation is the result of learning all you can, parking the seat of your pants in a chair and mastering the intricate and subtle details, doing experiments, keeping records and constantly asking what step to take next to achieve the desired goal. It typically means developing a wide-ranging knowledge.

Those who fail usually lack the self-discipline to stay focused. You make it sound like the keys to success in innovation are paisleys, long hair, incense, sandals and the right groove.

Author: Jumper from South Carolina