This so much reminds me of my company's approach to innovation. First, let's create an "innovation group" whose job it is to innovate. They'll have their own bu

This so much reminds me of my company's approach to innovation. First, let's create an "innovation group" whose job it is to innovate. They'll have their own budget. See investors? We're innovating! Make sure the innovation group isn't comprised of anyone with any experience or expertise in the industry vertical, or any other vertical for that matter. After all, we don't want them tainted with experience! That may interfere with their innovation! They can't be constrained by existing knowledge! Create a plan for how the innovation group is going to innovate because, you know, we need to show the investors what's being bought with their money. So, let's look at the set of problems that have been bedeviling us and everyone else in our industry for years and lay them out on a roadmap! We're going to solve all these problems! What you end up with is a group comprised mostly of recent college grads having next to no experience and a group of older grifters who've decided to make a career out of "innovation." Those poor college grads have no clue they're being conned and that the grifters are blowing smoke up everyone's ass until 3-4 years later when little to nothing has been "innovated" they're all let go. The grifters know when to bail, those poor college grads don't. The grifters move on to con somebody else, the college grads meanwhile struggle to find another job. I've seen this play out several times at several different companies. You'd think people would catch on and it would stop but no one wants to admit they made a mistake. So the grifters con on. This is all to say you can't plan innovation, just like you can't plan inspiration. You need to have a company culture where people can scratch their own itch and have time and resources with which to innovate if they so desire. It's the same with science - you can't plan discoveries and breakthroughs. You don't know a priori where all the blind alleys are. Failure is useful - it communicates to others where not to look, but no one wants to admit the failures so they don't tend to get published. Therefore we only want to put our money on what we're reasonably sure will succeed, which is risk-averse and here we are. More and more money going in and fewer results coming out. I feel like the 21st century is all about going through the motions and not caring about the actual results.