Here is the transcript and summary of Carl Bass’ talk titled “The New Rules of Innovation”at TEDxBerkeley conference. In this TEDx talk, Carl Bass discusses the new rules of innovation and the importance of embracing technological advancements to solve challenges. He emphasizes the need for individuals to take chances, challenge beliefs, and break the rules to innovate.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
One of my favorite films of all time is The Princess Bride. And in it, one of the main characters keeps on saying, inconceivable. And his partner in crime, after hearing him say it over and over again, turns to him and says, you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
And I think the same thing can be said about innovation. Everybody’s using the word, but I do not think it means what they think it means.
So why is everybody talking about innovation? After all, it’s not invention. It’s not scientific discovery. And it’s certainly not mathematical proof. But here’s why I think it’s so important. Innovation is the process by which we change the world. Innovation, to put it simply, is about making things better. It’s about making things better in significant and hopefully meaningful ways. It’s the practical application of ideas and technologies to make new and better things.
Now, innovation is hard. It requires taking chances. It requires challenging those things we think we know with certainty. It’s about taking risks and breaking the rules. At Autodesk, we make software tools. We make tools for people who make film and games. We make tools for the people who design and engineer the built environment. And we make tools for people who design and manufacture the things that are all around us.
And I feel very fortunate to work with such awesome people who make such incredible things. And it’s forced me to think a lot about innovation because nearly every company I know wants to be more innovative.
And after having thought about it for a long time, I’ve come to the conclusion that innovation is fundamentally not a corporate phenomenon. You know, innovation, like I said, it involves taking risks and it involves breaking the rules. And companies aren’t particularly good at that. In fact, I’d say it’s just the opposite.
Companies are good at making rules and minimizing risk. Now, in this classic book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen does a great job of explaining that the lack of innovation is not a failure of companies, but rather it’s the result of prudent and sound management.
Now, so what I’ve observed over the time is that innovation is fundamentally done by individuals. You know, the skills required, imagination, creativity, problem-solving, those are all individual skills.
So while companies can do many things to encourage innovation, I think the one thing they can best do is hire the right people. So I think about it as a basketball team. The Los Angeles Lakers are not great shooters. Kobe Bryant is. And if your team wasn’t good enough, what would you do? Would you hire a shooting coach? Or would you try to get more players like Kobe?
So when I go around and I see companies that have innovation labs or innovation frameworks or an army of innovation consultants, I get the sinking feeling that products are really going to suck.
Now, I think it’s important to be talking about innovation, and despite my cynicism about the rituals and myths around it, I think it’s really important because we need innovation to solve the grand challenges of our civilization. We need it to be able to do things like provide sustainable energy, clean water, and ample food.
We’re going to need to build infrastructure to deal with urbanization on a scale that we’ve never seen before. And on the commercial level, companies, in order to compete, need to be more innovative.
So the argument I’d like to make this morning, what I’d like to talk about, is five trends that are affecting innovation. My thesis is that innovation is happening at an unprecedented pace, and it’s going to continue to accelerate because of these five trends.
FROM OWNING PRODUCTS TO ACCESSING EXPERIENCES
So the first trend is we’re moving from owning products to accessing experiences. So why did Borders go out of business? Is it because we no longer wanted books or music or movies? Of course not. We just wanted to access them differently. So if you think about books, what I’m really interested in is the story, and the Kindle does a great job of giving me that story anywhere and anytime I want it.
Same thing with music. I’m not interested in owning a CD or a record or even an iTunes file. I want to listen to the music I love, and Spotify gives me that experience. The same thing with movies. I want to watch movies with my friends and family, and Netflix gives me that experience.
And when we move to the physical realm, same thing is true. Take an example like TechShop. For those of you who don’t know about TechShop, it’s like a health club for geeks. You pay a monthly fee, and you get access to a fully equipped workshop. And what people want is the experience of expressing themselves creatively and making things for themselves. What they’re not interested in is the hassle and expense of maintaining all that kind of equipment.
DOING BUSINESS DIFFERENTLY
Now the second trend is the way that businesses are doing business differently. The power of the cloud and the crowd is changing the fundamental economics in industry after industry and destroying traditional ways of doing business.
So take Kickstarter for an example. Many of you may know the story of Scott Wilson.
He was an industrial designer. He struck out on his own to build a wristwatch built on the iPod Nano. He tried to raise $15,000. In two months, he raised nearly a million dollars, and now his watches sell in the Apple Store.
But as amazing as that is for Scott, what’s more amazing, in aggregate last year, more than almost $100 million was pledged to support 25,000 projects on Kickstarter.
Now another way that business is changing is the idea of open innovation. And you know the basic idea. Nobody is as smart as everybody. For more than 10 years, there was a particular problem that had baffled the research community about the HIV virus. They posted the problem on the puzzle website Foldit, and within three weeks, the community had solved the problem.
Now it used to be that it was large corporations and government agencies that were doing all the innovation, you know, all the rocket science. And that stuff would eventually trickle down to smaller businesses and eventually to individuals like you and me. But today it’s all different.
It’s as likely that innovation is flowing upstream as it is flowing downstream. So as an example, when NASA went to build its new lunar lander, rather than do it all by themselves, they collaborated with a company called Moon Express. Moon Express is a small, nimble company with some of the youngest and smartest engineers.
DIGITAL FABRICATION
Now the third trend I want to talk about is digital fabrication. Digital fabrication is about designing things in computers and having them made with computer-controlled technology. It is changing the rules about how things are made. It’s changing the rules of the industrial revolution.
It used to be, in order to have things that were high quality and low price, we had to make large quantities of them. Today, we can make things of really high quality in small quantities at moderate prices, and those prices are going down every day. These technologies range from additive technologies like 3-D printing that you may have heard about, all the way to biological processes that are being used for manufacturing.
So nowadays, with increasingly affordable 3-D printers, we can print in a variety of materials. We can print in rubber. We can print in plastic. Here’s a bowl I recently made that I printed in metal. And there’s work going on at USC where they’re 3-D printing buildings, and there’s work at Wake Forest where they’ve 3-D printed a human kidney.
Now, digital fabrication isn’t just about the things that we’re now able to make. It’s also about where we’re able to make them. We’re going to be able to make them in places like outer space, deep under the sea, and in remote, distant villages. So, for example, a friend of mine recently tried out 3-D printing in zero gravity. And the basic idea is, rather than bring a complete inventory of every spare part you might need, why not bring a 3-D printer and print the spare parts you actually need?
So moving from space down to things too small for the eye to see, scientists and researchers are now working on machines and devices at the nanoscale. Here’s a great example. This is a nanorobot that was designed at the Wyss Institute at Harvard. And the basic idea was to use DNA to create this clamshell-like device and target a particular cell.
When it reached that cell, the clamshell would open and release its molecular payload. In its first instantiation, the idea was to target cancer cells and release a chemical intended to kill the cancerous cells.
Now, just to show you how real this world of synthetic biology is becoming, we worked on a small experiment with our friends at Cal — Gabriel Lopez is right here in the front row. And what we did is we re-engineered E. coli. E. coli is the bacteria that’s in your gut. It’s on your body. It’s the things that truthfully make human stuff smell badly.
So what we did is we took a bunch of E. coli and we re-engineered the biological instructions that emit the chemicals that make it smell badly, and we replaced them with different biological instructions. And so what I’m holding here in my hand is billions of E. coli that now smell like bananas.
THE RISE OF INFORMATION
Now, the fourth trend is about information and the rise of information. I grew up thinking that all the information in the world was in the card catalog at the local public library. Well, I was wrong.
I now know the vastness of the information available to us. And for an information junkie like me, this is completely incredible. But as vast as the information on the Web is, it’s also surprisingly local. I live here in Berkeley. I get all my news from a hyper-local blog called Berkeleyside.
And recently, my interests have gone to things like building CNC machines, building and designing them. And the Web is remarkably specific. By going to websites like Instructables and other ones like it, I can find a vast amount of knowledge about an admittedly obscure subject. And I have access to an entire community of people who are willing to share their knowledge with me about this subject.
And so just as the sources of information have changed, the way we gather and search and collect and filter this information has also changed. You know, the New York Times has this saying, all the news that’s fit to print. And for many years, that was true for me. The editors at the New York Times decided what was important for me to read.
Nowadays, it’s completely different. I’ve assembled my own network of people whose opinions I value and respect, and I follow them on Twitter, and they now tell me what’s important and what I should be reading.
Now, there’s a whole new realm of information coming at us, and that’s from the world of sensors. Here’s a sensor. It was designed and built in Berkeley. It’s tiny, it’s cheap, and it can be powered just from the energy in the air.
Now, sensors are all around us. They’re making their way into consumer products. I can now wear any of these consumer products and find out how fit I am, how well I’ve slept, or how stressed I am. And sensors are becoming the means that are going to power the smart objects of the future, whether that’s smart buildings or autonomous vehicles.
INFINITE COMPUTING
Now, the fifth trend I’d like to talk about is infinite computing. Up until now, I think we’ve been thinking about computing entirely wrong. We’ve been treating computing as though it was a scarce resource, a precious thing, when actually it’s limitless, free, almost infinite.
Everybody knows about the power of computing. You know, it doubles every 18 months or so. What that really translates into, in my phone, I have about 30,000 times more computing power than was launched on the space shuttle. But what it also means, through that same device, I have access to more computing power than existed on the entire planet just five years ago.
And computing is getting cheaper. In fact, the price of computing is approaching zero. And if you compare it to any other asset, energy, labor, commodities, which are all going up in price, computing is coming down in price and doing predictably so. Literally today, computing is the cheapest asset I can deploy against any problem.
Now this is where it gets really interesting. It used to be that if I wanted to solve a problem on my computer that, let’s say, took about 10,000 seconds, it would cost about a dollar. Nowadays, I can invert this whole equation and what I’m able to do is run it on 10,000 computers and get the answer in a matter of seconds for the same price. This is truly profound, the way that computing is scaling. Unlike humans, computing scales really well.
COMPUTING IS BECOMING UBIQUITOUS
And the fourth one is that computing is becoming ubiquitous. You know, it’s in our phones, it’s in our cars, it’s in our buildings, soon it will be in our clothing, and it will probably end up in our bodies.
So like I said, I think we’ve been thinking about computing entirely wrong. We have to stop treating it as a scarce and precious resource and start dealing with it as the infinite resource that it really is.
Regardless of what domain you’re working in, you’ve now been handed one of the most powerful tools ever, and it’s virtually free.
So this morning, I talked about the trends that I think are affecting innovation. And what I really think is important is that it’s individuals who break the rules who make those new innovations. And the ones who are really successful at breaking the rules, in effect, what they’re really doing is creating the new rules.
And in a never-ending cycle, those new rules will have to be broken as well. So while the challenges I think we face are daunting, I’ve never been more optimistic about our ability to solve them. There’s never been a greater need or a better time to innovate. Go out there and break the rules.
Thank you.
SUMMARY OF THIS TALK:
Carl Bass’ talk, titled “The New Rules of Innovation,” provides valuable insights into the changing landscape of innovation and its five key trends. Here is a summary of his talk in key takeaway points:
1. Redefining Innovation: Carl Bass begins by challenging the common misconceptions about innovation. He emphasizes that innovation is not just about invention or scientific discovery but rather the process of making things better in significant and meaningful ways. It’s about applying creativity and technology to improve the world.
2. Individual-Driven Innovation: Bass argues that innovation is primarily driven by individuals rather than corporations. While companies can encourage innovation, it’s the unique skills of individuals, such as imagination, creativity, and problem-solving, that fuel true innovation. Therefore, hiring the right people is crucial for fostering innovation within organizations.
3. Trends in Innovation: Carl identifies five major trends that are shaping the future of innovation:
From Owning Products to Accessing Experiences: Consumers are shifting from owning physical products to seeking experiences. This change is evident in industries like music and movies, where streaming services provide convenient access to content without ownership.
Doing Business Differently: The power of the cloud and the crowd is disrupting traditional business models. Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter empower individuals to bring their creative projects to life. Open innovation encourages collaboration and problem-solving from diverse sources.
Digital Fabrication: Digital fabrication, including 3D printing, is revolutionizing how things are made. It enables high-quality production in small quantities at lower costs. Additionally, it has the potential to expand manufacturing capabilities into remote and unconventional environments.
The Rise of Information: The abundance of information available on the internet has transformed how we gather and consume knowledge. People now have access to highly specialized and localized information, and they curate their sources through social media and online communities.
Infinite Computing: Computing power continues to grow exponentially while becoming more affordable. This infinite computing resource allows individuals and organizations to tackle complex problems more efficiently and cost-effectively.
4. Ubiquitous Computing: Bass highlights that computing is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. It’s integrated into everyday objects, from smartphones and cars to buildings and even clothing. This proliferation of computing power provides individuals with a potent tool for innovation.
5. Embracing Abundant Computing: Bass encourages the audience to view computing as an abundant and virtually free resource, in contrast to the traditional scarcity mindset. He emphasizes that computing’s scalability is unmatched by any other asset, making it a powerful tool for innovation across various domains.
6. The Role of Rule-Breakers: Bass underscores that successful innovators are those who break existing rules and, in doing so, create new ones. This ongoing cycle of rule-breaking drives innovation forward. He expresses optimism about humanity’s ability to tackle grand challenges through innovation.
In conclusion, Carl Bass’ talk sheds light on the evolving nature of innovation and the pivotal role of individuals in driving it. He emphasizes the need for organizations to hire the right talent while embracing the five key trends that are reshaping the innovation landscape. As technology advances and computing becomes increasingly abundant, the potential for transformative innovation is limitless. By breaking existing rules and creating new ones, individuals and organizations can address the pressing challenges of our time and drive progress in all areas of human endeavor.
