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It's Own Sake |
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The devil's advocate will say an innovation must have some beneficial application to be called innovative. The angel's advocate will say, no, the purest form of innovation—the kind we do for its own sake—gives rise to all innovation. The first will say we are wasting our time if we don't have a clear objective in mind when we set out to invent. The latter will say objectives lower and limit our sights. Let's take the angel's side. While there's a place for both, creativity for its own sake is our only source of miracles. It's pure research that discovers the totally unexpected breakthrough, the all-night jam session that unleashes the hottest riffs, dancing for the sake of dancing that makes a party unforgettable. Undirected, uninhibited, play delivers the kind of innovation no logician will ever find. I suppose we're justified in rejecting innovation when we can't keep up with it. When a new version of software breaks into the market before we've mastered the version we own. When we go on the Internet and realize there's no way we'll ever see the end of it. When we look under the hood of our new car and fail to recognize anything. While the pressure to go keep up with our ever-evolving world never relents, some of us will dig in our heels and protest, "Enough is enough!" But doesn't that amount to saying, "enough for the sake of enough"? |
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Don't take my word for it. Dig deeper. |
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