Quotes About Innovation

Like many aspects of the digital age, this idea that innovation resides where art and science connect is not new. Leonardo da Vinci was the exemplar of the creativity that flourishes when the humanities and sciences interact.

Many people suppose that computing machines are replacements for intelligence and have cut down the need for original thought," Wiener wrote. "This is not the case."14 The more powerful the computer, the greater the premium that will be placed on connecting it with imaginative, creative, high-level human thinking.

Just as combining the steam engine with ingenious machinery drove the Industrial Revolution, the combination of the computer and distributed networks led to a digital revolution that allowed anyone to create, disseminate, and access any information anywhere.

Critical comments by students should be taken in a friendly spirit," he said. "Accumulation of material should not stifle the student's independence." A society's competitive advantage will come not from how well its schools teach the multiplication and periodic tables, but from how well they stimulate imagination and creativity.

Public awareness is an important component of innovation.

Finally, I was struck by how the truest creativity of the digital age came from those who were able to connect the arts and sciences.

People don't know what they want until you show it to them.

In other words, the future might belong to people who can best partner and collaborate with computers.

When people take insights from multiple sources and put them together, it's natural for them to think that the resulting ideas are their own—as

A big idea comes along at just the moment when the technology exists to implement it.

Innovation occurs when ripe seeds fall on fertile ground. Instead of having a single cause, the great advances of 1937 came from a combination of capabilities, ideas, and needs that coincided in multiple places.

The most successful endeavors in the digital age were those run by leaders who fostered collaboration while also providing a clear vision. Too often these are seen as conflicting traits: a leader is either very inclusive or a passionate visionary. But the best leaders could be both. Robert

Great inventions come from understanding basic science. Nature is beautiful that way.

Like many entrepreneurs, Bushnell had no shame about distorting reality in order to motivate people.

The year before, 279,000 Apple IIs were sold, compared to 240,000 IBM PCs and its clones.

service, which would relay messages to his mother. Ron Wayne drew a logo, using the ornate line-drawing style of Victorian illustrated fiction, that featured Newton sitting under a tree framed by a quote from Wordsworth: "A mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone." It was a rather odd motto, one that fit Wayne's self-image more than Apple Computer. Perhaps

Bushnell agreed. "There is something indefinable in an entrepreneur, and I saw that in Steve," he said. "He was interested not just in engineering, but also the business aspects. I taught him that if you act like you can do something, then it will work. I told him, 'Pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are.

By 2001 Apple had revived its personal computer offerings. It was now time to think different. A set of new possibilities topped the what-next list on his whiteboard that year.

I have my own theory about why decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft.

Bob Metcalfe created a way to use coaxial cable (the type that plugs into cable TV boxes) to create a high-bandwidth system that he named "Ethernet.

Macintosh." Jobs, clean-shaven and bouncy, gave a toothy smile and asked

The complexity for minimum component costs has increased at a rate of roughly a factor of two per year

During one maddening session, Kay, whose thoughts often seemed tailored to go directly from his tongue to wikiquotes, shot back a line that was to become PARC's creed: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."60

Think Different" campaign, featuring iconic photos of some of the same people we were considering, and he found the endeavor of assessing historic influence fascinating. After