remember all those super-talented people who just came up with great stuff out of the blue, invented, created or designed things you just couldn’t do without?
of course you can see lots of new gadgets every day on places like Temu and other sites that bombard you on your socials, but what I’m talking about here are the people who blow you away with ground-breaking uses for technology in a way-beyond-even-Elon-Musk way.
don’t get me wrong, Elon musk is a genius. he does things in what I’d call a Steve Jobs-style of innovation. he takes something already out there and re-imagines it into something better. like a magician with a balloon making a dog from it. OK. maybe not that. what Steve Jobs did was make stuff better. much, much better. Let me explain…
back at the turn of the 20th century, Henry Ford decided to make a car for the people, the Model T. when asked to explain why he did it, he replied…
if I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.
so Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are “faster horses” sort of guys. they take something and re-imagine it. For example, Steve Jobs is often wrongly credited with inventing the mobile phone. but he didn’t. they had been around a long time before Apple got into the business. Steve made it more user friendly with more features and style. in other words, a faster horse.
enter elon musk
Elon didn’t invent space travel or even re-useable propulsion units. what he did do was make it more accessible, cleverer and took our breath away. same as Tesla. Elon didn’t invent EV’s. what he did was cut through the fog of legacy design and make practical EV’s. I’m sure if you asked him, he’d be the first to admit he is no inventor. well, maybe not yet. never write the guy off.
has the technological age stifled true innovation instead of incubated it?
you would be forgiven for thinking with all the facilities at our disposal today, the boundless knowledge at our disposal through a browser, the materials we have access to, the companies to produce virtually any prototype of anything, life would be all flying cars and domestic robotic wives.
but if I pressed you, can you name one thing that simply didn’t exist in some form 25 years ago?
I’ll let you think about that for a minute.
have we stopped our kids thinking for themselves?
with everything there somewhere, have we simply settled for faster horses?
I’ve given lots of examples of people who didn’t invent what they’re famous for, but let me point to people who did. take Thomas Edison. He was a prolific inventor and what he invented transformed society. like the telephone, the record player, and most important of all. the humble light bulb.
the light bulb opened up night time for humans – in other words giving us nearly 50% longer days for productivity, saving lives and even to innovate instantly the idea came into our heads, not having to wait until the sun rose on another day.
well I’m off on my faster horse to find some of yesterday’s heroes to create a better existence for us all. coming with me – then hold on tight…