Posted by
lrudolph on
Feb 13, 2010; 9:10pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Sources-of-Innovation-tp4566136p4567767.html
The unquestioned axiom here seems to be that
innovation is, per se, always and everywhere
"good" (for some value of "good" that is itself
mostly implicit, I think, though I admit I haven't
followed the entire thread carefully), or at least
"good" for those in the immediate locale (physical,
social, economic, virtual...whatever) of the
innovation.
If I had to choose an axiom, I'd prefer Paul
Goodman's: "Innovate only to simplify, and then
sparingly." But that axiom presupposes a lot--
at a minimum, that "innovation" is a choice,
that its consequences are transparent, that
simplification is good (same caveats as above),
that the impact of a given innovation on
simplification vs. complication is transparent,
and probably much more.
Of course, so does the previous axiom presuppose
a lot.
Lee Rudolph
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