Where is Innovation taking us?

In the past couple of decades, technology has revolutionized our lives. Along with technological advances, innovation has probably been overdone. Its effects haven’t gone down too well with people. So, where is this ‘over-innovation’ taking us? To answer this question, I would like to quote few articles, which I have read in past several days.

iPhone defined what a smart phone is. When it was introduced people were awestruck with its touch-screen, sleek looks and variety of apps it provided with. Then came the various flavors of iPhone with more and more improvements. As of 2010, it also made video calling possible. Awesome! In this process of innovation, what was forgotten is that the main (NOT the sole) purpose of a phone is to make and take calls. Oh yes, smart people realized this before I did and recently a new phone called “anti-iPhone” was launched. What are its features? One can make and take a call, that’s it. It comes with a regular diary and pen to note down phone numbers instead of a phonebook feature. My parent’s generation had only such phones. Wow!

Once upon a time, in organizations there used to be a role available called the telephone operator. With the automated voice responses becoming popular, the next generation will probably not know that such a role existed. Recently, cognitive-psychologists understood that if a human answers a call instead of digitally recorded voice, the customer satisfaction goes up. No wonder organizations are switching back to the traditional telephone operators, to give a boost to their business. In US many companies have already started giving ads about how ‘true-humans’ answer our calls instead of recorded voices.

So, the trend is clear… It is invention, innovation, over-innovation followed by switching back to the good old idea. Did I get it right?

I or M?

This article has been due and I felt just needed that extra time and extra motivation to compile it, which I ultimately found today. If you are wondering, what the hell this guy is trying to convey, by such a weird title, let me throw some light on it. I or M, here are abbreviations for Intelligence or Money. Now probably some of you might be interested in reading further. Most of us are raised with this logic that more intelligence means better grades, better grades means better schools and better schools directly translate into higher salary. And when I try to argue countering this logic, this probably amuses people. I fervently believe that there is no logic to determine the relation between intelligence and money. However people often deduce a mechanism, the more money you have, the more intelligent you are. Oh yes, the rich man is handsome, makes incredibly funny jokes and sings well too.

What trend I have observed is that people are just fascinated with wealth and pay least attention to the intelligence that goes behind earning it. To prove my observation, I did a small experiment (which you may do it in under 2mins).I googled names of four people who are either wealthy or extremely intelligent. For Richard Feynman google gave 3,140,000 pages while for Richard Branson, there staggering 4,250,000 pages. Another two people I tried were John Nash at 2,070,000 pages lagged behind Warren Buffet with 3,500,000 pages. I bet most of my readers wouldn’t have ever heard of Richard Feynman or John Nash. To me, focusing on money and trying to somehow relate it to or ignore it for money, is in a way bankruptcy of thought. One needs to evolve beyond materialistic world, in order to realize the complete advancement in the society.

Of course these are my personal thoughts. When you ask me this question I or M, I would go with I, simply because I find I factor more appealing. To many it’s M. But secret is, without I, M seldom stays! Ah… am I pimping for people to focus on I. You decide.