Alan Kay: The Pitfalls Of Incrementalism

Can incrementalism get some love? Seems everyone is opposed to it, but the plain fact is that nearly all progress is incremental.

Real "innovations" tend to be composed of a few component ideas that are themselves incremental. Innovation is built on incrementalism. The iPhone just took existing things and combined them in a smart way that produced the innovation -- but it was ultimately the simple act of being aware of the incremental progress in many areas that made the innovation possible.

Hilariously, incremental improvements are built on innovation.

It's turtles all the way down. Hofstadter and all that jazz.