Why Our Innovators Traffic in Trifles

 

General Culture

“It’s not quite right to say that society’s collective failure of imagination stems from a slump in innovation. I would suggest a different explanation. What we are seeing is not a slowdown in the pace of innovation but a shift in its focus. Americans are as creative as ever, but today’s buzz and big-money speculation are devoted to smaller-scale, less far-reaching, less conspicuous advances. We are getting precisely the kind of innovation that we desire—and deserve. […] if we want to see a resurgence in big thinking and grand invention, if we want to promote breakthroughs that will improve not only our own lives but those of our grandchildren, we need to enlarge our aspirations. We need to look outward again. If our own dreams are small and self-centered, we can hardly blame inventors for producing trifles.” - Nicholas Carr (my emphasis)