Tuesday, 9 November 2004

Invention vs. Innovation

Those who know me IRL may have been subjected to my "Brits invented everything" rant. This Wired article puts the case succinctly:
...British inventions -- the gas turbine and jet engine, railways, penicillin, radar -- had become the cornerstones of several key American industries. The British invented, the Americans profited. Why? It's not because Americans are sleazy opportunists. Instead, these American visionaries were bold enough to think they could change the world and pragmatic enough to use whatever technology and information existed.

BTW, add "electronic, programmable, digital computers" to that list, would ya?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's about money. People in the US only got there because they were prepared to take some level of risk.

Notice that now there is a much more stably-stratified society in the US (with a large middle class and even a royal family of sorts) both the need and opportunity to take risks are reducing.

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