The great lie of technology: How innovation is overrated | Hacker News Reader

The great lie of technology: How innovation is overrated

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17 pointsyotamoron9 comments

>Wisdom is the opposite of efficiency. It is the opposite of a solution. Wisdom will not make your life more comfortable.

Wisdom is a distillation of knowledge from the past and present. Wise choices about where to put your efforts, will greatly increase your chances of reaching your goals, and finding satisfaction.

We all depend heavily on “non-innovative” technology to survive. Think farming, energy production, transportation etc. Consistent reliable execution is what matters.

Innovation is only overrated in the world of software engineering. In everything else innovation is everything.

Yup, innovation has been overrated for thousands of years. Writing destroys people's memories. Chimneyed fireplaces allow people to stay inside for longer, making them soft and weak. Better crop rotation and better ploughs make peasants lazy. Spinning wheels allow even poor people to own two shirts! Etc., etc.

A useful innovation would be that you learn how to read.

This is not what the article is saying. No one in their right minds will argue that innovation is totally unimportant, obviously there are many innovations that made all our lives much better. The article is not saying that innovation is all good or all bad. Surely innovation has helped humans and will help us until the end of time - its just not the answer to some classes of human problems.

Innovation isn't everything in any field. It's important, but so is a lot of other factors.

Silicon Valley tends to fetishize and abuse the idea of innovation, often to the detriment of everyone. "Innovation" is used as a cover for all sorts of bad actions.

Not at all. Consistent effective execution is what matters for most things. Farming is 1000x more important than “innovative” software development. Without farming we would all be starving and dying.

(2016)

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