Heroin Flasche
Heroin wurde erstmals 1874 synthetisiert. Bayer brachte das Medikament auf den Markt und begann 1898 mit der Massenproduktion. Das Medikament wurde sowohl als Hustenmittel als auch als besserer und sicherer Ersatz für Morphium und Kodein beworben. 1913 stellte Bayer die Herstellung von Heroin wieder ein.
Innovation Invention Fehler
A 1923 prediction of the horror and inconvenience that would occur if anyone invented a mobile phone
Innovation hat immer Feinde. Getrieben von Sicherheitsbedürfnissen, Eigeninteresse oder der Angst vor Machtverlust klappern Innovationsgegner lautstark mit allen ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln.
Fahrräder galten als jugendgefährdend, weil sie den Nachwuchs vom Lernen und von Büchern ablenken würden. Sanitäranlagen hielt man für Zeitverschwendung. Geburtshelfer sprachen sich gegen die Anästhesie aus. Taxifahrer in London wetterten gegen Regenschirme. Der Pferdeverband von Amerika ging gegen den Traktor vor Gericht. Der Kühlschrank ließ die “Natürliche Eis-Industrie” schlecht schlafen. Das Telefon sollte angeblich das Privatleben zerstören, es grassierte die Telephonitis. Ja, selbst Alexander Graham Bell fand sie seien ein Ärgernis. Bundeskanzler Helmut Schmidt ließ die Verkabelung von elf deutschen Großstädten stoppen, weil privates Fernsehen gefährlicher sei als Kernenergie. Und um das alles zu toppen: Sogar gegen Reißverschlüsse sträubte man, denn sie erleichterten das Ausziehen. Eine Sünde.
Auch wenn Innovation willkommen ist, findet sich immer jemand, der sie dämonisiert. Feindseligkeit & Widerstand gehören zur ihrer Natur. Der Widerstand gegen Veränderungen ist seit jeher fest im menschlichen Gehirn verdrahtet. Das sollte man immer im Hinterkopf behalten, wenn man an etwas Neuem arbeiten.
Invention Widerstand Innovation
Ansicht 1
Ansicht 2
Mehr bei Wikipedia.
Innovation Invention BigTech InfrastrukturAmazon hat eine unglaubliche Erfolgsbilanz. Klar, das Fire Phone war ein Totalausfall. Aber AWS, Fire TV, Logistik etc sind Kassenschlager. Sie bescheren Amazon eine bessere Wertgenerierung als die meisten VC-Fonds.
Zugegeben: niedrige Kapitalkosten + Skalierungsmöglichkeiten + stabiles Kerngeschäft = Freiheit für große Sprünge plus Fähigkeit unvermeidliche Misserfolge auf dem Weg zu amortisieren. Der Teufel scheisst immer auf den größten Haufen. Aber das Recht hat sich Amazon verdient.
Wenn man kein Risiko eingeht, bleibt einem oft nur die Kapitulation. Erfolg wird durch Fortschritt ermöglicht. Und Fortschritt erzeugt man durch Trial & Error Prozesse. Experimente gebären Neues, können aber auch scheitern.
Fehlertoleranz ist zwingend innovationskritisch. Man muss rausgehen, sehen, was funktioniert, die Misserfolge verwerfen und auf den Erfolgen aufbauen. Man weiß erst ob man einen Hit gelandet hat, wenn der Song im Radio gespielt wird. Wer am meisten kreiert, hinterlässt oft den stärksten Eindruck. Denn die Wahrscheinlichkeit, eine einflussreiche oder erfolgreiche Idee hervorzubringen, steigt mit der Gesamtzahl der produzierten Ideen. Iteration bedeutet mehr Varianten, mehr Perspektiven und eine größere Chance auf Originalität und Innovation. (Bild: Doc Searls)
Innovation Experiment Fehlertoleranz
Many of CERN’s founders gathered for the Third Session of the provisional CERN Council in Amsterdam on 4 October 1952
Charakteristisch für technisch-wirtschaftliche Großprojekte ist, dass Nebenwirkungen und -effekte, die zur Erreichung des Ziels angestrebt werden, fast so wichtig sind wie der eigentliche Zweck.
Das CERN hat zB. nicht nur die Kernforschung verändert. Durch die hohen wissenschaftlich-technischen Anforderungen wurden eine Fülle von neuen Entdeckungen auf den verschiedensten Gebieten angeregt. So mussten erst grundlegende Hindernisse in der Metallurgie oder der Landvermessung überwunden werden, um das perfekte Rund des Teilchenbeschleunigers zu ermöglichen. Und ohne den Drang von Tim Berners Lee, den Datenaustausch und die Aktualisierung von Informationen zw. Wissenschaftlern zu vereinfachen, hätten wir heute kein World Wide Web.
Oftmals bedeutsamer als die Ernte technologischer Nebenprodukte ist aber das Entstehen einer offenen-vorwärtsgerichteten Mentalität. Das CERN reiht sich dabei nahtlos ein in die Reihe der wichtigsten Forschungszentren unserer Zeit. Die Royal Society of London, das Edison-Labor, die Bell Laboratories, Xerox PARC oder das OSRD trieben nicht nur Produkte, sondern auch Geisteshaltungen. Der dort jeweils geprägte Denkstil wies weiter und beeinflusste das Kommende letztlich tiefer, als es die sichtbaren Produkte vermochten. (Bild: CERN)
Innovation Culture Transformation ecosystemtheory ecosysteminnovation innovation ecosystems History of Science
Auch Fahrräder wurden nicht von jedem willkommen gehießen
Letzte Woche sprachen Cord Alexander Schmidt und ich über Netflix’s “The Social Dilemma”. Fazit: Die Message ist wichtig, die Doku selbst ist schlecht.
Sie simplifiziert, nutzt dumme Tropen & moralisiert. Sie ignoriert die Komplexität sozio-technologischer Social Media Dynamiken, ist komplett US-zentriert und vergisst die Rolle der Medien.
Wenn das Narrativ lautet “Social Media macht abhängig”, kann die Antwort laut Doku nur lauten: Löscht Social Media. Doch so einfach ist es nicht. Wir alle wissen, dass ein aktiver und moderater Umgang positive Effekte hat. Selbst für Kinder & Jugendliche. Doch es kommt niemand zu Wort, der die von der Doku induzierte moralische Panik einordnet.
Am ärgerlichsten ist aber, dass sich Tech-Bros mit der Doku reinwaschen: “Oh, wir dachten, wir bauen eine Technologie, um Gutes in der Welt zu verbreiten” reicht nicht als Entschuldigung. Man kann seine Rolle nicht runterspielen, nur weil man meint, man sei erleuchtet. Verantwortung übernehmen bedeutet nicht direkt wieder etwas zu pitchen.
Again: Es ist wichtig auf die Probleme aufmerksam zu machen. Doch dafür schädliche & sich selbst verstärkende Narrative zu nutzen, zu moralisieren und Panik zu schüren, ist falsch.
Und btw: Auch Fahrräder wurden dämonisiert. Macht eure Hausaufgaben.
Netflix Social Media Medienkritik thoughts2020 is already halfway through, so it is time for some verdicts. Connect and shoot me a note if you want to talk about a book or if you need a recommendation. Always happy to connect and chat. If you only want to read one book from this list, go and buy Peter Wohlleben: The Hidden Life of Trees - What They Feel, How They Communicate, Discoveries from a Secret World.
My first Gladwell. Well… I really like his iconic storytelling style. His prose is engaging and vibrant. You can read the book in one sitting. Unfortunately, his methodology does not meet your typical science-based book standards. He oversimplifies complex socio-technological phenomenons and his arguments are too often based on anecdotes. One example: Gladwell’s interpretation and praise for the 100,000 hours rule from Anders Ericsson. What does it take to become an expert or master performer in a given field? 10,000 hours of practice. Gladwell claims that greatness requires enormous preparation time. It’s catchy and easy to remember. But completely false. Ericsson himself says that the number 10,000 is totally arbitrary. It’s not really based on anything substantial. But Gladwell „estimates“ that the Beatles put in 10,000 hours of practice playing in Hamburg, and that Bill Gates put in 10,000 hours of programming work before founding Microsoft. Hence the 10,000 hour rule was born. Hmmmm… Otherwise, I like his basic orientation: Success is not solely based on intelligence, ambition, hustle and hard work. It’s also important that time and place in which one is born plays an important part in people’s key successes. Also we can never be separated from our roots, our community, our culture and our education. So if we develop our abilities and attitudes in the field that we are genuinely passionate about, if we’re open for opportunities and if we’re prepared to grasp any opportunities passing by, we can play an active role in our own success.
★★★☆☆
Narratives are popular these days. Everywhere you can read how important storytelling is for… basically anything in our VUCA world. And yes, the topic is incredibly stimulating and definitely too underexposed. We still do not understand virality well enough to protect ourselves from those who know how to use catchy stories to their advantage. Anyhow, Shiller is interested in how popular stories affect individual and collective economic behavior and how we can use the knowledge to vastly improve our ability to predict, prepare for, and lessen the damage of financial crises, recessions, depressions, and other major economic events. An exciting research thesis, which could have resulted in an exciting book. Unfortunately, his chosen examples are too US economy-centric and too boring. Moreover, his data pool (data from Google NGram and ProQuest) is too limited to derive a truth from it. Plus not a word about Memetics, or Network and Web Science literature. Don’t get me wrong. It’s worth reading. The concept of „contagion of narratives“ will become a big one. No matter what science, industry or media you’re in. But the book feels more like the start of a road.
★★★☆☆
Just like Gladwell, Johnson has developed his own iconic style, which I really appreciate (and hate at the same time). He is a great author, who knows how to prepare innovation concepts for the general public and how to mediate between an interested periphery and the ivory towers of science. In this book he examines the theory of emergence and explains how biological and political phenomena are connected and how ants, slime molds, cities and distributed software are related (bottom-up, decentralized, locally interconnected, self-organizing). It is quite intriguing that the book was written in 2001. Even if some examples are a bit dusty (especially those dealing with the internet), you can still enjoy it today.
★★★☆☆
Why? You have to know the Shingys to have a say. On the one hand, Diamandis and his co-author record some exciting developments and summarize current visions of the future well. His basic thesis — that technological convergence is responsible for rapid technological disruption — is also valid. On the other hand, Diamandis only collects hype, enriches it with startup cases, which will of course make sure that the outlined visions come true and misses to include social, political, societal and cultural developments. A typical problem of futurists. Diamandis’ belief: All problems of the world can be solved through the use of technology. The convergence of AI, 3D printing, cultured meats, nanotechnology, virtual/augmented reality, biotechnology and blockchain, will dramatically alter our ways of living or working. Yes, but No. Take it with a large pinch of salt. And consider that this book will be successful and will shape the thinking of many people.
★★☆☆☆
Ziya Tong has written a vibrant wake-up call. It’s full of insights, knowledge nuggets and thoughts that make you think. It’s also a fountain of smart pub quiz questions. I don’t think I have ever scribbled so many 💡 in a book as in this one. It’s a book about what we refuse to see — and the destructive consequences. Her hypothesis: To see the world clearly, we must know our blind spots. And these are based on 1) biological perceptual limits, 2) collective amnesia (we don’t know where our food comes from, under what circumstances it is produced, where our energy comes from or where our waste goes, and 3) intergenerational blind spots that are passed on or newly created from generation to generation. In her statements she offers slivers of hope, that if we collectively get our asses in gear, we can change.
★★★★☆
Last year, I really enjoyed „Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die“ from the Heath brothers, so I thought: Give them another try. In „The Power of Moments“ they ask: If our lives are measured in moments — moments that endure in our memories — how can we create these defining moments and do they really matter? Their answer: By outlining the elements of a “defining moment” (these moments are EPIC = Elevation: Create moments that rise above the everyday; Pride: Help people feel proud of accomplishing milestones; Insight: Help people understand an important truth; Connection: Forge transformational alliances among people) you get closer to manage these moments in education, business settings, and your private life. Overall the book is highly readable but it lacks some impact. This is because they are often on the fringes of basic wisdom. Recommended for people who like to understand psychology, want to motivate people better, or just want to create more memorable moments in their lives.
★★★☆☆
Currently I have a weakness for everything related to innovation, creativity and originality. „How to Fly a Horse“ is highly readable, debunks common beliefs about creativity and shows what really leads to inventions and discoveries: Genius is not sudden inspiration but hard work and perseverance. Ashton’s main message is to get in there and keep trying. Nobody knows anything. You have to go out, see what works, discard the failures and build on the successes. You won’t know if it’s a hit until after you bring it to market. Picasso produced 20,000 pieces of art (1800 paintings, 1200 sculptures, 2800 ceramics and 12000 drawings), Einstein wrote 248 papers, Dylan recorded 50 albums, Bach wrote a cantata every week, Thomas Edison filed 1093 patents, Shakespeare’s plays are a canon of approximately 39 dramatic works and 154 sonettes, Mozart composed more than 600 works and Beethoven 650, VCs fund hundreds of businesses (hell, even Richard Branson funded more than 250 companies). Those who have created the most are also the ones who have the most significant innovative impact. The probability of producing an influential or successful idea increases with the total number of ideas produced. More iterations means more variants, more perspectives and a greater chance of originality.
★★★★☆
I must confess: I only listened to the book part by part and in passing with 25% brain capacity. So I can’t really say too much about it. At least it helped me to pass some time and to make vacuuming a little more pleasant. Kushner tells the 1994 battle between the founder of Match.com and the con man who swindled him out of the website Sex.com, resulting in an all-out war for control for what still powers the internet today: love and sex. It’s an odd tale of cat & mouse between two unlikely rivals in the early Wild Wild West days of the internet. In the end it was not nearly as interesting as the abstract promised.
★★★☆☆
Wilbur and Orville Wright taught the world how to fly and I was ‘hooked’ instantly listening to the audiobook. McCullough tells stories about the boys’ childhood, their strong relationship with their father and sister, their early attempts at gliders and flying machines, those famous first flights in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and finally of their international fame and travels. It’s a tale of how two men changed the world. After 1903 the aviation industry exploded. One breakthrough followed the next. A flourishing ecosystem developed, which continued to push itself to maximum performance. For thousands of years man could not fly, but then it took only 55 years for the first transatlantic passenger flight to cross the Atlantic. And it all started with Wilbur and Orville, who showed grit and iterated their way to success. They were not the first people who have the idea of building a flying machine, nor were they the first to begin to build one, but they were the first people to fly. Their inventive leap was not a great mental leap, but more hundred of little steps. It’s a trial and error story. Trying something over and over, changing one small variable at a time. This is how true innovation looks like.
★★★★☆
One of those rare books that will change your perception of the world. Wohlleben manages a forest in Germany (he’s no academic) and has written a wonderful little book about trees. Yeah, you read that right. Trees. It’s a book about how trees communicate, what makes them unique in nature, and how man has impacted their development, their lifestyles and their evolution. Wohlleben explains that beneath every forest there is a complex underground network of roots, fungi and bacteria that connects trees and plants. Almost 60 percent of all trees in the world are in contact with their neighbours through such a symbiotic fungus-tree connection. They communicate through it, support each other by sharing nutrients with those who are sick or struggling and creating an ecosystem that mitigates the impact of extremes of heat and cold for the whole group. All this facilitates a vast and interconnected ecosystem that is more than the sum of its parts. Trees shape the world and offer lessons for how to live in it.Especially Digital Ecosystems can learn a lot from their natural predecessors. After reading the book you will see the world with different eyes and will not be able to walk past any tree without wondering with whom the tree has already communicated today.
★★★★★
Another long awaited book that is loved everywhere. Actually I wanted to read it, but I listened to it through my scribd subscription. Which means that I could not follow every bit with maximum concentration. But let me say I have mixed feelings. The book’s core question is right down my alley: How do you create and sustain the company culture you want? To answer this question, Horowitz mixes behind-the-scene anecdotes from his professional life and lessons from history to derive some power point truths and to connect the leadership examples from the past to modern case-studie: E.g. your culture is what you tolerate, walk the talk, actions > values, keep what works, incorporate outside leadership, make ethics explicit or make decisions that demonstrate cultural priorities. So far so good. The bad news is that Horowitz is not a historian and it feels a lot like he has interpreted the stories, characters and their decisions to fit the points he’s trying to make. The book certainly lives from Horowitz’s aura. It has cool stories and „sticky pseudo-truths“ that you can share during your next afterwork craftbeer session in Berlin Mitte. But if you trim the „style“ out, the book lacks substance. Even if his deductions are stimulating here and there. But don’t take them at face value.
★★★☆☆
Duncan Watts is responsible for the mathematical advancement of the small world phenomenon, which is often associated with the phrase “six degrees of separation“ — the idea that all people are six, or fewer, social connections away from each other. The book covers his work on small-world networks and network theory in general and builds upon his paper „Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks“, which is one of the most cited scientific papers ever. His work provides the link between many of the books I enjoyed over the last years. Whether it’s about culture, innovation, team organization, corporate innovation, power, platforms or ecosystems. All of them are based on the scientific observation, that small groups, loosely connected, but orchestrated or united by a common purpose are performing much better as traditional hierarchically driven efficiency models. In this model, ideas can spread quickly and mutate into new ideas, innovations and transformations. Networks beat hierarchies. A fact that is still underestimated.
★★★★☆
What a ride. Ross Ulbricht (aka Dread Pirate Roberts) built a big-money darknet online drug empire from his bedroom and almost got away with it. This book had me from beginning to end. A nonfiction written like fiction. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. You could buy anything on the Silk Road. Drugs, weapons, body parts, and other contraband were offered for sale. Even hitmen. And Ulbricht was the mastermind behind it. Bilton assembled a riveting rise-and-fall story and shows the transformation of an unremarkable student into the head of a global criminal enterprise. It’s clear that there will be more Silk Roads and more darknet shallows ahead, and we are certainly stepping in the middle of it right now.
★★★★☆
Johannes Gutenberg, man of the millennium. We all know him. We all love him. His invention unhinged the world. But I was surprised how little I knew about him as an entrepreneur. So I wrote a portrait about the entrepreneur (will be published soon). Also because Gutenberg’s entrepreneurial history is surprisingly modern. After his first venture failed, he returned to his home city Mainz and experimented relentlessly on his printing press. But a too high burn rate and too low cash flow meant that he had to cede his business to his investor. Including critical assets and all printed Bibles. His history can still teach us a lot today. And Albert Kapr has done a wonderful job in bringing the man, the inventor, the technician and the artist Johannes Gutenberg closer to us. Moreover, the book is one of the most beautiful typeset books — no wonder — that I had in my hands this year. Even if it’s been around for a few decades.
★★★★☆
thoughts
Image from “The Saturday evening post”
Innovation ist weniger zielgerichtet und geplant, als man denkt. Viele Durchbrüche beruhen auf Variationen im Design, im Marketing oder im Geschäftsmodell.
Ein Beispiel dafür ist Listerine, benannt nach Joseph Lister, dem Vater der modernen Chirurgie. Listers Forschungen machten die Chirurgie sicherer, weil die Gefahr von postoperativen Infektionen sank. Er setzte sich für die Verwendung von Karbolsäure als Antiseptikum ein, welches das erste verbreitete Antiseptikum wurde. Mit steigendem Wissen über Keime wuchs in der viktorianischen Bevölkerung das Sauberkeitsbedürfnis. Der Markt wurde von karbolsäurehaltigen Reinigungsmitteln und Hygieneartikeln überschwemmt.
Listerine war eines davon. Es wurde 1879 vom Chemiker Dr. Joseph Lawrence entwickelt. Lawrence lauschte einem Lister-Vortrag und begann danach in einer alten Zigarrenfabrik eine Antiseptikum-Produktion. Der Erfolg blieb leider aus. Bis er 1881 den Apotheker Jordan W. Lambert kennenlernte. Lambert kaufte ihm Markenrecht & Rezeptur ab und vermarktete Listerine als vielseitig verwendbares Antiseptikum, u.a. als Bodenreiniger sowie als Heilmittel gegen Gonorrhöe. 1895 kam Lawrence dann auf die Idee, Listerine als antibakterielle Mundspülung an Zahnärzte zu vertreiben. Der Rest ist Geschichte.
Invention innovation principles Joseph Lister Innovation
Fritz Haber und Carl Bosch
Das von Fritz Haber und Carl Bosch (feiert heute Geburtstag) entwickelte großindustrielle Verfahren zur Synthese von Ammoniak hält unsere Welt am Leben. Oft erzählt wird die Legende vom erleuchteten Forscher Haber und dem ausgebufften Geschäftsmann Bosch, der das Potential erschloss. Doch die Heldenerzählung hinkt. Es ist keine Heureka-Story, sondern einer Chronik über inkrementellen Fortschritt in einem #Innovationsökosystem:
Haber und sein früher Kompagnon Walther Nernst forschten zur Ammoniaksynthese. Sie suchten einen Katalysator & kopierten dafür Edisons Erfolgsrezept: Fortlaufende Experimente zur Lösungsfindung. Sie fanden sie im Metall Osmium, auch wenn sie nicht wussten warum. Bosch fühlte den Durchbruch und finanzierte weitere Projekte. Sie versammelten das größte Forscher- & Ingenieursteam der Welt. Schrittweise wurde die #Erfindung in eine #Innovation übersetzt. Problem nach Problem wurde gelöst, auch wenn dafür ihr Kollege Alwin Mittasch 20.000+ verschiedene Materiale testete & man überall nach Inspiration suchte. Auch auf fremde Pionierleistungen, wie z.B. von Rudolf Diesel oder Henry Bessemer, war man angewiesen. Schließlich konnte man Prozesse & Produktion skalieren. Heute deckt das Verfahren mehr als 99 % der weltweiten Ammoniakproduktion.
History of ScienceI always thought that there was at least one person in the stands who had never seen me play, and I didn’t want to let him down.
DiMaggios Antwort auf die Frage, wie er es schafft konsistent auf hohem Niveau zu spielen. Übung macht den Meister. Nur wer an sich selbst glaubt, Risiken eingeht, es wagt anders zu sein und sich täglich fordert, schafft es auch die schwersten Dinge einfach zu erscheinen zu lassen. Was motiviert Dich?
grit inkrementelle innovation quotes
nullisland