There is an usually missed distinction between Being the First, Being Original, and Being Innovative.
To work out that someone (or something) has been the primary, we tend to want to apply a temporal test. It should answer a minimum of 3 questions: what specifically was done, when exactly was it done and was this ever done before.
To see whether or not somebody (or something) is original – a test of substance must be applied. It should answer at least the following questions: what exactly was done, when precisely was it done and was this ever done before.
To see if someone (or something) is innovative – a practical check has to be applied. It should answer a minimum of the following queries: what specifically was done, in that approach was it done and was precisely this ever done before in precisely the identical way.
Reviewing the tests on top of leads us to 2 conclusions:
1.. Being first and being original are more closely linked than being 1st and being innovative or than being original and being innovative. The tests applied to determine “firstness” and originality are the same.
2.. Though the tests are the same, the stress is not. To see whether someone or something is a initial, we have a tendency to primarily raise “when” – while to determine originality we tend to primarily ask “what”.
Innovation helps within the conservation of resources and, thus, in the delicate act of human survival. Being initial demonstrates feasibility (“it’s doable”). By being original, what is needed or can be done is expounded upon. And by being innovative, the practical facet is revealed: how should or not it’s done.
Society rewards these pathfinders with standing and lavishes other tangible and intangible benefits upon them – mainly upon the Originators and the Innovators. The Firsts are often ignored as a result of they do in a roundabout way open a replacement path – they merely demonstrate that such a path is there. The Originators and therefore the Innovators are the ones who discover, expose, invent, put along, or verbalize something during a approach which permits others to repeat the feat (very to reconstruct the process) with a lesser investment of effort and resources.
It is possible to be First and not be Original. This can be because Being Initial is context dependent. As an example: had I traveled to a tribe in the Amazon forests and quoted a speech of Kennedy to them – I’d hardly have been original however I would undoubtedly are the first to possess done so in that context (of that particular tribe at that exact time). Popularizers of contemporary science and religious missionaries are all initial at doing their factor – but they are not original. It is their audience which determines their First-ness – and history which proves their (lack of) originality.
Several people reinvent the wheel. It is humanly impossible to concentrate on all that was written and done by others before us. Unaware of the fact that we are not the first, neither original or innovative – we tend to file patent applications, build “discoveries” in science, exploit (not so) “new” themes within the arts.
Society might judge us differently than we have a tendency to understand ourselves to be – less original and innovative. Hence, perhaps, is that the syndrome of the “misunderstood genius”. Admittedly, things are easier for those folks who use words as their raw material: there are such a lot of permutations, {that the} probability of not being first or innovative with words is minuscule. Hence the copyright laws.
Nonetheless, since originality is measured by the substance of the created (plan) content, the probabilities of being original with 1st are slim. At most, we tend to finish up restating or re-phrasing recent ideas. The case is worse (and also the tests a lot of rigorous) when it involves non-verbal fields of human endeavor, as any applicant for a patent will attest.
However then surely this is too severe! Do not we have a tendency to all stand on the shoulders of giants? Can one be original, first, even innovative without assimilating the expertise of past generations? Can innovation occur in vacuum, discontinuously and disruptively? Is not intellectual continuity a requirement?
True, a scientist innovates, explores, and discovers on the basis of (a limited and somewhat random) choice of previous explorations and research. He even uses equipment – to measure and perform other functions – that was invented by his predecessors. But progress and advance are conceivable while not access to the treasure troves of the past. True again, the very concept of progress entails comparison with the past. However language, during this case, defies reality. Some innovation comes “unintentionally” with no “predecessors”.
Scientific revolutions are not sleek evolutionary processes (even biological evolution is no longer thought-about a smooth affair). They are part transitions, paradigmatic changes, jumps, fits and starts instead of orderly unfolding syllogisms (Kuhn: “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”).
There is very very little continuity in quantum mechanics (or maybe in the Relativity Theories). There is even less in modern genetics and immunology. The notion of laboriously using building blocks to construct an ebony tower of science is not supported by the history of human knowledge. And what about the primary creature who had a thought or invented a tool – on what did he base himself and whose work did he continue?
Innovation is the daddy of new context. Original thoughts form the human community and the firsts among us dictate the principles of the game. There is terribly little continuity within the discontinuous processes known as invention and revolution. However our reactions to new things and adaptation to the new world in their wake primarily remain the same. It is there that continuity is to be found.
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