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At Elide, we build technology; our goal is to create the next generation of tooling for a better polyglot future. Thinking about technology can be a real challenge. Following is a set of resources that help provide a thought model for innovation, illuminating how invention and creation are inherently tied to vulnerability and market dynamics.
Great ideas, in the form of great art, stories, inventions... scientific theories; these things take on lives on their own, which give meaning to our lives as people.
Bret Victor, Inventing on Principle
What is innovation?
in·no·vate (verb): change something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.
Innovation is the process and craft of creating new things and developing new and more efficient ways of approaching and solving problems. Challenges are fundamental to life: at every scale, personal up to global, and for every creature and culture, suffering is inherent, so living forms work hard to make their environment and existence more comfortable.
Multiple moving parts drive life's progress on Earth. Innovation is one of these; it is the creative force that demands that we re-examine our assumptions about the world and do our best to imagine from first principles what solutions should look like.
Innovation changes over time because the challenges we face change over time. In this way, innovation is reactive; anything new is inherently a reaction to all that came before it. Innovation attempts to be an answer in this context, where the question is a challenge painful enough to warrant energy beyond avoidance.
Innovative progress, specifically, implies a re-thinking of how a problem should be solved.
Isn't tech the same thing as innovation?
Comedy is a socially acceptable form of hostility and aggression. That is what comics do; stand the world upside down.
George Carlin
Innovative progress can take on the form of technology, but sometimes mere concepts do the job. Concepts can be innovative or radical, even without accompanying action, challenging the mind to think differently.
Not all technological progress is innovative: some is incremental, and that's fine. Most progress focuses on enhancing the return on input, and rightfully so. Time and attention are zero-sum, so it would be infeasible to re-examine our approach to a problem at every opportunity.
Why does this matter so much?
Innovative business isn't business-as-usual. By adopting and understanding this model of thinking about innovation, we can apply a consistent thought process to interpret opportunities, threats, and ideas of all kinds. We gain a consistent framework with strong nomenclature and literature that can help guide us through the inherent ambiguity of invention.
Everyone at Elide in any role needs to know which direction we're all rowing in so we can row in unison towards the same destination.
Where can I learn more?
Take your time to review the following material at your own pace. If you have questions or other resources you'd like to nominate, drop a comment on this discussion:
For everyone
Resources in this section are great for everyone of all backgrounds and don't require expertise.
Inventing on Principle is a seminal talk which every engineer should see. Every team member who joins at Elide should watch this talk and reflect on it, even if you aren't writing code. What Bret describes in his talk is empowering to everyone and forms the basis for a consistent thought model which addresses principled invention.
Ken Thompson's Reflections on Trust talk was given as he accepted an award from ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery. His talk is considered a seminal work of computer security research in its own rite.
Who is Ken Thompson?
Ken Thompson invented UNIX, the ancestor to Linux, macOS (Darwin kernel descendents), and BSD (so, nearly every operating system except Windows descends from his work).
The Innovator's Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen
Type: Book
Length: 288 pages
Audience: Everyone
Expertise needed: None, but it's pretty thick reading
The Innovator's Dilemma is considered the bible of tech innovation. It was famously Steve Jobs' favorite book, and it's a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how innovation works in the context of business.
Peter Thiel is a controversial figure, but he is also an extremely successful entrepreneur and innovation-focused investor; despite his flaws, this talk is a fantastic resource for understanding the nature of small markets, and the benefits that small-market domination can yield.
For managers
Resources in this section are great for everyone of all backgrounds and don't require expertise.
Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions, Harvard Business Review
Radical Candor is a famous talk which is included in First Round Capital's library of resources for entrepreneurs and CEOs. Kim is a CEO and former Googler who is responsible for the success of AdWords and other important Google products.
Key quote:
The source of everying respectable in man either as an intellectual or as a moral being is that his errors are corrigible; the whole strength and value of human judgement depends on the one property that it can be set right when it is wrong.
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Elide
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At Elide, we build technology; our goal is to create the next generation of tooling for a better polyglot future. Thinking about technology can be a real challenge. Following is a set of resources that help provide a thought model for innovation, illuminating how invention and creation are inherently tied to vulnerability and market dynamics.
What is innovation?
Innovation is the process and craft of creating new things and developing new and more efficient ways of approaching and solving problems. Challenges are fundamental to life: at every scale, personal up to global, and for every creature and culture, suffering is inherent, so living forms work hard to make their environment and existence more comfortable.
Multiple moving parts drive life's progress on Earth. Innovation is one of these; it is the creative force that demands that we re-examine our assumptions about the world and do our best to imagine from first principles what solutions should look like.
Innovation changes over time because the challenges we face change over time. In this way, innovation is reactive; anything new is inherently a reaction to all that came before it. Innovation attempts to be an answer in this context, where the question is a challenge painful enough to warrant energy beyond avoidance.
Innovative progress, specifically, implies a re-thinking of how a problem should be solved.
Isn't tech the same thing as innovation?
Innovative progress can take on the form of technology, but sometimes mere concepts do the job. Concepts can be innovative or radical, even without accompanying action, challenging the mind to think differently.
Not all technological progress is innovative: some is incremental, and that's fine. Most progress focuses on enhancing the return on input, and rightfully so. Time and attention are zero-sum, so it would be infeasible to re-examine our approach to a problem at every opportunity.
Why does this matter so much?
Innovative business isn't business-as-usual. By adopting and understanding this model of thinking about innovation, we can apply a consistent thought process to interpret opportunities, threats, and ideas of all kinds. We gain a consistent framework with strong nomenclature and literature that can help guide us through the inherent ambiguity of invention.
Everyone at Elide in any role needs to know which direction we're all rowing in so we can row in unison towards the same destination.
Where can I learn more?
Take your time to review the following material at your own pace. If you have questions or other resources you'd like to nominate, drop a comment on this discussion:
For everyone
Resources in this section are great for everyone of all backgrounds and don't require expertise.
Inventing on Principle, Bret Victor
Inventing on Principle is a seminal talk which every engineer should see. Every team member who joins at Elide should watch this talk and reflect on it, even if you aren't writing code. What Bret describes in his talk is empowering to everyone and forms the basis for a consistent thought model which addresses principled invention.
Who is Bret Victor?
Bret is responsible for inventing the clickwheel on the original iPod and many other cool things over his long and interesting career. He is considered a global expert on innovation and other topics.
What others say about him:
Sam's notes:
Nobody tells engineers they can live this way; most professions do not know that principled guidance is an option.
Reflections on Trusting Trust, by Ken Thompson
Ken Thompson's Reflections on Trust talk was given as he accepted an award from ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery. His talk is considered a seminal work of computer security research in its own rite.
Who is Ken Thompson?
Ken Thompson invented UNIX, the ancestor to Linux, macOS (Darwin kernel descendents), and BSD (so, nearly every operating system except Windows descends from his work).
The Innovator's Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen
The Innovator's Dilemma is considered the bible of tech innovation. It was famously Steve Jobs' favorite book, and it's a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how innovation works in the context of business.
Competition is for Losers, by Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel is a controversial figure, but he is also an extremely successful entrepreneur and innovation-focused investor; despite his flaws, this talk is a fantastic resource for understanding the nature of small markets, and the benefits that small-market domination can yield.
For managers
Resources in this section are great for everyone of all backgrounds and don't require expertise.
Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions, Harvard Business Review
Radical Candor, by Kim Scott
Radical Candor is a famous talk which is included in First Round Capital's library of resources for entrepreneurs and CEOs. Kim is a CEO and former Googler who is responsible for the success of AdWords and other important Google products.
Key quote:
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