Science //
A legal pad and some pencils were all you needed to win the Nobel Prize a century ago.
It takes today millions of dollars and scores of people to make it.
The most basic problems have already been solved.
This inevitable shift has led to a bureaucratic and industrialized science in many areas. The majority of people in science-related organizations simply do their job. This is a good thing because it leads to coordinated and step-by-step progress. It’s a problem because it places a high value on being right and instills fear of making a mistake.
Innovation, whether in the arts, science or business, is all about being prepared to make mistakes, as innovation demands missteps. They are not a defect, but a feature.
Laptops, open systems and loosely coordinated networks are changing the way we work. It’s now possible for small teams to have a significant impact on entrenched power systems. In turn, incentives change. A tiny team is no longer a cog that’s cheap in a large system. Instead, it has a lot to gain by challenging the conventional wisdom.
