Quotes About Innovation

Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible.

Coming up with ideas is the easiest thing on earth. Putting them down is the hardest.

Imagination... its limits are only those of the mind itself.

Science fiction makes the implausible possible, while science fantasy makes the impossible plausible.

In any event, there was no "fall" into "Dark Ages." Instead, once freed of the bondage of Rome, Europe separated into hundreds of independent "statelets."16 In many of these societies progress and increased production became profitable, and that ushered in "one of the great innovative eras of mankind," as technology was developed and put into use "on a scale no civilization had previously known.

When William the Conqueror had the Domesday Book compiled in 1086, this forerunner of the modern census reported at least 6,500 water-powered mills operating in England, or one for about every fifty families.

the Romans knew of the watermill but made nearly no use of it, continuing to rely on muscle power to grind their flour.20 The Ottoman Empire prohibited the mechanical clock, and so did the Chinese.

Humans will tend to adopt and retain those elements of culture that appear to produce "better" results, while those that appear to be less rewarding will tend to be discarded.

As the distinguished medievalist Warren Hollister (1930–1997) put it in his presidential address to the Pacific Historical Association, "to my mind, anyone who believes that the era that witnessed the building of Chartres Cathedral and the invention of parliament and the university was 'dark' must be mentally retarded—or at best, deeply, deeply, ignorant."60

As the distinguished medievalist Warren Hollister (1930–1997) put it in his presidential address to the Pacific Historical Association, "to my mind, anyone who believes that the era that witnessed the building of Chartres Cathedral and the invention of parliament and the university was 'dark' must be mentally retarded—or at best, deeply, deeply, ignorant.

The reason so many innovations and inventions were abandoned or even outlawed in China had to do with Confucian opposition to change on grounds that the past was greatly superior.

In fact, when the Egyptians would not export papyrus, parchment (made from treated animal skins) was invented in Pergamum. The word parchment derives from the Latin "Pergamena charta," or "paper of Pergamum.

so that age and subsequent generation always go on destroying and spoiling what went before:

When you're doing all you can and "what more?" seems an impossible task, try thinking differently, step outside your box, and open your mind to solutions that were there all the time. Solutions you just couldn't see. Act

The "Solve It" Question When taking the Solve It step, you should ask: What else can I do? Asking this over and over is the key to making progress. Repeatedly asking, What else can I do? forces you to drill down through any obstacles to find solutions, solutions that are often buried deep in the rich soil of innovation and creativity, solutions that almost always lurk below the surface of your easygoing, everyday, even routine way of thinking.

Every successful journey Above The Line begins by asking a single question: What else can I do to achieve the result I want?

Instead of trying to get people to work harder, make their job easier.

Orson Welles] was a man who made the greatest film ever made and was never forgiven for it.

The sad thing is that when movies like this fail, executives think that proves there's no audience for unusual, original pictures - because they think they've made one.

The future is not a scenario written, which we only have to act out; it is a work which we have to create.

Hewlett-Packard is somewhat riskier than GE; Amazon.com, riskier still.

Perhaps it is conceivable that, in the future, some different kind of 'computer' might be introduced, that makes critical use of continuous physical parameters-albeit within the standard theoretical framework of today's physics-enabling it to behave in a way that is essentially different from a digital computer.

The important person in a free economy is not the manager but the entrepreneur – the one who takes risks and meets the cost of them.

Artists and critics get together in order to take themselves in, the artists posing as the originators of astonishing breakthroughs, the critics posing as the penetrating judges of the true avant-garde.