What Do You Do With an Idea?
The principal tools of production today are not machinery and equipment. Neither is it solely the brainpower of the managerial leadership. Rather, the tools of production are the ideas and talents (the intellectual capital) of the scientist, the machinist, and the programmer. Therefore, the possessors of the intellectual tools of production, the pe
... See moreJames A. Belasco • Flight of the Buffalo: Soaring to Excellence, Learning to Let Employees Lead
Countries that used to define themselves through creating bold new institutions no longer do so—there are no recent equivalents to the NHS or the BBC in Britain; no equivalents of NASA or DARPA in the US. In much of academic life, too, you are more likely to succeed by slightly tweaking an established idea than creating a novel one.18
Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
Productivity statistics over the last few decades apparently offer hope. Productivity is quite slow from 1973 to the mid-1990s, but after then, we see some spurts. For instance, measured productivity rises at 2.8 percent a year from 1996 to 2000. From 2000 to 2004, there is a second surge, with an even higher average of 3.8 percent productivity gro
... See moreTyler Cowen • The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better: A Penguin eSpecial from Dutton
Hypothesis 1: The "golden age" hypothesisThe "golden age" hypothesis says there are one or more "golden ages" from the past that were superior at producing innovation compared to today. Perhaps understanding and restoring what worked about those "golden ages" would lead to an explosion in creativity today.