Happy TL;DR Tuesday! Today’s TL;DR Shorts is from George Dyson. George is an American historian of technology and science. He is widely recognized for his work in the history of computing and his exploration of the intersection between science, technology, and society. He has bridged the gap between practical engineering and academic scholarship.
George talks of his interest in innovation and how it works smoothly and productively in small groups before bureaucracy can take hold. However, once group sizes reach a critical mass of around 50, the progress of innovators is hampered by processes and admin. This echoes the thoughts of Clayton M. Christensen in his seminal book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. It seems that research projects, big business and even grant funding bodies struggle with capturing innovation when lightning seems to strike randomly.
“You don’t know where innovation is going to be, you just want to be ready to support it when it happens – and recognise it, and that is a very difficult problem.”
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