I have seen ‘innovation’ and ‘innovative’ obsessively bandied around enough times (solutions, platforms, applications, strategies…) to suspect it is pure bullshit, but I couldn’t put my finger on why exactly. I mean Innovation is a Good Thing, isn’t it? But I was right (it’s not just me being #grumpyoldwoman). In The Myth of Innovation designer Jim Unwin writes: “I would like to call bullshit on everyone who uses “innovation” as a design goal.” Well worth reading.
The A-Z of Bullshit, Hype and Cool Stuff is part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016
3 Responses
In education, administrators are always drawn to the latest innovations in teaching. Most of it was the same old stuff in new packaging and new buzzwords. (I remember your BINGO game. Ha ha.)
You hit on one of my hot buttons. Bottom line: many people would rather seek a new method than stick to path which leads to success. I understand, though, why people use “innovation” because the predecessor to innovation was “novation” or renewing, and people cycle through failure again and again. It seems easier to say “the method was wrong” than to admit one’s own weaknesses (speaking from experience here) and advertisers know that and use that against us. Too funny.
I think when it comes to building platforms in particular, innovation most often means shortcut–and so many of us want a shortcut to avoid the work. I want a shortcut, honestly, for I tire of needing to give up things that are important to me in search of a goal I’m no longer sure I want to reach. However, when I find a process that works for me, that will suit my needs, and become my shortcut. These steps make sense, whereas those ones didn’t. And if I can take fewer steps? So much the better.