The Myth of Invention

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A couple of days ago I went to a SUP46 event together with Marjolein. The event – organized by Microsoft – hosted guest speaker Bill Buxton who talked about “the myth of innovation”. According to Buxton sudden, unexpected inventions do not exist and overnight successes take 20 years to be created. He adds that big, ground-breaking inventions do not exist. Every creation is only a stepping stone in the innovation process. An example is the myth of the lone inventor surrounding Edison. Edison is seen as one of the greatest inventors of mankind, inventing one big thing after another. But if he really was such a great inventor, why did he have so many people working for him in his workshop?

Innovation doesn’t happen overnight. It is a long, hard and foremost expensive process which can be represented by the below graph. The graph – also called “the long nose of innovation” represents the timeline from the original creation of an idea to a billion dollar company thriving of the invention. As one can notice in the graph, things move very slowly and innovation happens mostly under the radar. At a certain point the innovation becomes known and gets successful.

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                   (Source: http://slideplayer.fr/slide/9079573/)

An example is the invention of the Capacitive Multi-touch devices. The technology was invented, but yet for about 20 years no one knew about it until IPhone brought it from under the radar. In other words, innovation is all about timing. Technologies that will be popular in 10 years are already 10 years old. In order to invent, one must know its history. Innovation is a combination between finding – or prospecting – ideas, together with making your own.

I think the best example of the repetition of the past is the one of the IPod G4. Look at the pictures below. The top picture shows the Braun t3, one of the first radio players, while on the bottom you can see the IPod G4, one of the first generations of the IPod. It soon becomes clear where Apple was looking for its design ideas, right?

Source: http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/design/articles/2013/august/27/did-dieter-ramss-t3-inspire-this-new-radio/

                        (Source: http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/design/articles/2013/august/27/did-dieter-ramss-t3-inspire-this-new-radio/)

 

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                         (Source: http://tuxtops.com/node/2443)

In the end, I really liked this presentation. I am sure it will stick with me for the next couple of years. “To know the future, one must know its own past”!

Innovation event – Why eBay is more important than 3D printing

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On the 15 of November Sup46 hosted an event with guest speaker Bill Buxton. Bill buxton is a Canadian computer scientist and designer. Well known for being a pioneer in the human-computer interaction field.

Bill told about what he learned in the field of technological innovation. He started with the Edison myth. Everybody thinks Edison invented electricity, but he says this is a myth. Edison bought a lot of inventions and patented them. So, he put his name on the invention and hope that the inventions would become a success.

According to Buxton, Innovation has a long nose: technological innovations do not move fast. Most of the techniques used in the 1 billion industries are invented at least 20 years ago. The invention of these techniques are under the radar for a lot of years, till the market is matured and prepared for the use of the invention. A great example of this phenomena is the capacity multi-touch. Buxton and a team of engineers developed this technique in 1984. Apple used this technique for the first time in their iPhones and iPods that came out in 2007. Steve Jobs said during the keynote that Apple came up with a new technology and that it would become the next big thing (the Steve Jobs myth.)

Nowadays students and people are told to come up with the next big thing and capture the market. As Buxton says, this is all a lie and people are destined to fail if they believe in this myth. But how should we innovate?

  • Prospecting:
    • Look around. What kind of products were produced in the past, what kind of technologies were used(, but not anymore), what products are on the market, what inventions are done, and what technologies exist?
  • Mining
    • Filter on which ideas, inventions or technologies could be useful.
  • Refining
    • Use the found invention(s) to come up with a new product.
  • Goldsmithing
    • Bill Buxton: ‘Making the product worth more than its weight in gold.’

In conclusion, it is really important to know your history and look around.

3dprintingvsebay

One last question arises, what is going to be the next big thing according to Bill Buxton?

A lot of the devices and products used nowadays are not connected at the moment. All the product are used on its own. Bill Buxton said that the step in innovation will be that all the devices used will synergies. It is important that the product will work on its own, but at the moment you come close or use another device they will connect. The devices should complement each other’s usage. For example: somebody is on the phone and the person has to leave for work. The moment the person enters their car and start it, the phone will connect to the car. The call switches to the hands free set in the car. The person is then allowed to drive and can go on with the call without interruptions.