There are plenty of twitter threads and articles describing the challenges of online teaching. They all look different after some eye-opening conversations with my daughter about how undergraduates are experiencing life during the pandemic. Continue reading
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Innovations in Espionage
Innovations find their own path of least resistance, often response to others. Global espionage is no different. Continue reading
Other People’s Problems
Something in our nature enables us to ignore problems until it looks like we can solve them. Continue reading
Thinking and Doing, Zuckerberg Style
I've talked earlier about something called the "Think/Do" cycle — the process of moving between thinking about what you should do and doing it. Most of the innovation literature has, to date, been focused on coming up with new ideas (thinking a lot; thinking better; thinking out of the box, etc…). Recently, thanks to design thinking, lean startups, lean launchpad, and other emerging conversations around innovation, popular advice is starting to emphasize words like doing, testing, experimentation, prototyping, and iterating. The challenge is finding the balance.
EVs, Electric Lights, and iPhones
When new technologies compete, what tips the scale toward one or the other? Maggie Koerth-Baker wrote a terrific article in the New York Times, Why Your Car Isn't Electric, which captures some of the social dimensions of technological innovation by looking at the dominance and demise of the electric vehicle in the first decade of the 20th century. If only inventors, entrepreneurs, and policy makers could spare the time to consider these dimensions before rushing off to change the world.
(to read more, jump to the post EV's, Electric Lights, and iPhones, at The Hargadon Files)
Apple v Google: It’s never pretty when parents fight
When the last tech blogger in the land has weighed in on the Apple iOS6 Maps debacle — which at this rate should be within the week — perhaps we can have a more interesting conversation about the tectonic shifts shaping the mobile market (and our driving experience). Here’s my take on those shifts and how they explain the sorry state of Apple Maps.
At the table or on the menu: The Politics of Innovation
Political. Self-interested. Calculating. Aggressive. Machiavellian. Few people use these words to describe innovation. Fewer still take pride in these traits.Yet developing more sustainable products or processes depends on the willingness and ability to engage in the politics of innovation. Continue reading
