Former President Joe Biden supported investments to spur innovation. Even in the waning moments of his presidency, he continued to promote innovation. President Donald Trump's recent actions demonstrate a commitment to global leadership in science and technology. He also supports innovation, particularly with respect to artificial intelligence. However, his focus is on removing any restraints based on safety that can slow advances.
Both presidents understand the benefits of innovation, which has become a catch word for anything new and exciting.
Yet what is innovation? At its core, it is creativity, the process of uncovering new ideas that offer value and benefits. It is "curiosity in action," responding to the question "why?" with "how?"
Innovators come from all sectors of society. A building custodian who envisions a better way to perform their duties is as much an innovator as a medical research scientist uncovering a new treatment for cancer or an engineer who builds a novel product or identifies a new manufacturing process. The differences are the scopes of such innovations, and the footprint of impact that the innovations offer.
True innovators do not think of themselves as innovators. They go about their affairs, identifying and applying innovative ideas in their professional and personal affairs. To them, innovation is not a word, it is an action. Others will recognize them as innovators, while they themselves rarely think of themselves as such.
In fact, those who label themselves as innovators rarely are. This is like people who describe themselves as humble. Once they label themselves in this way, their humility evaporates.
Innovation is the lifeblood of scientific, engineering, medical, artistic, and economic advances. The National Science Foundation invests billions of dollars in research at universities and in industry to uncover new insights that push the boundary of knowledge forward and create economic value. The National Institutes of Health invests in research that will improve human health, uncovering clinical advances that improve diagnosis, treatment, and well-being, ultimately benefiting everyone.
Yet innovation comes about via two broadly defined avenues: perspiration and inspiration. This is best captured in the working approaches of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Both were innovators, yet they employed very different strategies to achieve their successes.
Edison was practical, using trial-and-error to uncover an elusive new idea through a methodical process of elimination. He was the consummate experimentalist, known for exhaustive search to discover the "needle in a haystack" idea and insight.
Tesla took a more measured, theoretical approach. He would examine a situation, using fundamental insights to draw conclusions and reveal new understandings to make his discoveries.
Edison relied heavily on "perspiration," while Tesla was moved with "inspiration." Both men exhibited unique innovations, taking different paths to make their discoveries.
The contrasting approaches taken by Edison and Tesla demonstrate that the paths for innovation are varied, with no one vector correct, better, or more desirable.
Though both men were innovators, their discoveries were inherent in their approaches to uncovering new ideas, not by the label of being an innovator.
Many people or organizations would like to think of themselves as innovators. Yet how we think about ourselves is not relevant. It is the ideas uncovered, the products created, and the services delivered that ultimately define who are the real innovators. Simply labeling a person an innovator does not make them so.
Is innovation oversold? Certainly not. What is oversold is the term innovator and who is designated as such.
Edison and Tesla are examples of two men who took radically different approaches to discovery, with each gaining recognition and acclaim in history. They each amassed impressive accolades for their works. Edison's name remains attached with innovation and discovery, with the conglomerate General Electric, a beacon for his contributions.
Tesla's contributions to alternating currents are unparalleled, without which existing technology and the digital revolution as we know it would not exist. More recently, he has been featured by Elon Musk with the name for his electric car manufacturer, Tesla.
The most creative engineers, scientists, physicians, and artists do not need to be labeled as engineering innovators, science innovators, physician innovators, and art innovators. Their works speak for themselves. Any organizations or entities that use such words to describe their people likely lack the very innovation they want others to believe they possess.
The many paths to innovation give everyone an opportunity to make discoveries that can make the world a better place, independent of whether "world" is spelled with a big "W" or a little "w." Indeed, innovation is what defines who the innovators are, not the other way around.
Sheldon H. Jacobson is a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He employs his expertise in data-driven, risk-based decision-making to evaluate and inform public policy. He has studied aviation security for more than 25 years.
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