5 ms·

If you allow me a small anecdote... I used to live in Manhattan. Occasionally, I would go to the store to get paper towels or toiletpaper and buy the bulk-size.

If you allow me a small anecdote... I used to live in Manhattan. Occasionally, I would go to the store to get paper towels or toiletpaper and buy the bulk-size. Invariably, the package would be too big to fit in the small plastic bags that were available and carrying it along with everything else was rather awkward. Last year I moved to Turkey, and one of the first things that I noticed is that all of the bulk-size packages of paper towels and toiletpaper have built in carrying straps. Now, this may seem like a very, very minor thing (and it's not unique to Turkey). On it's own it says nothing, but the longer I've been away from the US, the more and more I've noticed just these sorts of little things. It's the sum total of these "little things" that indicate to me that the US has, on a very fundamental level, stopped innovating. Oh, sure, the US will continue to produce new things. It'll probably even produce one or two big new things in the next couple years, but it's not the big things that drive the innovative spirit. Gather enough smart people in one place, give them enough time and enough money, and you're pretty much guaranteed to get a major innovation (or, at least a driverless car). You'll also waste an enormous amount of resources. A society that is innovative at its core has only to foster that innovation, in any small way, to get a far greater return on investment. In short: America has a tremendous head start, but America has become complacent. The "next big thing" just might come from somewhere where the people are still hungry.

cbs 14y ago
I think you're drawing too much from that observation. It says more about the market in the Turkey than the innovation in Turkey. Geographically-targeted versions of items are custom tailored for desires of local markets. Even if we assumed none of the TP brands in Turkey are multinational corporations, do you really think that the carrying strap idea wouldn't have been nicked by companies that do sell to other markets? Living in NYC and buying a big pack of toilet paper is an outlier as far as the US is concerned. Anywhere else in the states you would put the pack it in your shopping cart and roll it directly to your car door. For all we know, those straps could have been designed in the States, and the bean-counters decided adding the straps to the case manufacturing process is only cost-justified in plants serving an average population density of X and above. I only bring this up because I have, in the past, been working in the States and built better versions of products for sale exclusively in Europe.
- jballanc 14y ago
  Perhaps the straps were a bad example. Another example (that I already noticed back in 2004) is that the mall parking lots all have lights hooked up to sensors so that you can see when a spot is available without having to drive up-and-down every aisle in the lot. Again, it's not that any one particular example stands out. For almost every one of these examples I've noticed, I could come up with a way to explain away how it isn't a difference in innovation. I, too, have thought about the how shopping-carts-to-cars does not necessitate the straps. I have thought that the parking lot lights might not have a significant or measurable enough ROI to justify their installation to US mall owners... but isn't that the point? It's not that any of these things are needed or demanded or even entirely justifiable from a purely economics-driven view point. But since when has an economics-driven view point led to great innovation? Isn't a prerequisite for innovation the willingness to look beyond simple, straight-forward economic arguments? To be creative for creativities sake? It's in this way that I mean the US has stopped innovating.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - eclipxe 14y ago
    We have the parking light indicator thing here too. San Jose, Santana Row...
    - jballanc 14y ago
      Heh...oddly enough, I've been to Santana Row. It's the only mall in the entire US that I've been to that has anything even close, and while Santana Row does tell you what levels have free spots, the last time I was there they still didn't have indicator lights above each individual spot. ...but, again, it's not any one particular "invention" but rather the whole attitude that's different. The US has gotten complacent and seems to be spending more effort on justifying why it's the greatest than on actually, you know, being the greatest.
      - 14y ago
syncopatience 14y ago
I bought bulk-size toilet paper at a Target in St. Louis and the cashier taped a plastic handle to it as she rang it up. Fear not - the US is still advancing the state of the art in toilet paper delivery.

cbs 14y ago

I think you're drawing too much from that observation. It says more about the market in the Turkey than the innovation in Turkey. Geographically-targeted versions of items are custom tailored for desires of local markets. Even if we assumed none of the TP brands in Turkey are multinational corporations, do you really think that the carrying strap idea wouldn't have been nicked by companies that do sell to other markets? Living in NYC and buying a big pack of toilet paper is an outlier as far as the US is concerned. Anywhere else in the states you would put the pack it in your shopping cart and roll it directly to your car door. For all we know, those straps could have been designed in the States, and the bean-counters decided adding the straps to the case manufacturing process is only cost-justified in plants serving an average population density of X and above. I only bring this up because I have, in the past, been working in the States and built better versions of products for sale exclusively in Europe.

jballanc 14y ago
Perhaps the straps were a bad example. Another example (that I already noticed back in 2004) is that the mall parking lots all have lights hooked up to sensors so that you can see when a spot is available without having to drive up-and-down every aisle in the lot. Again, it's not that any one particular example stands out. For almost every one of these examples I've noticed, I could come up with a way to explain away how it isn't a difference in innovation. I, too, have thought about the how shopping-carts-to-cars does not necessitate the straps. I have thought that the parking lot lights might not have a significant or measurable enough ROI to justify their installation to US mall owners... but isn't that the point? It's not that any of these things are needed or demanded or even entirely justifiable from a purely economics-driven view point. But since when has an economics-driven view point led to great innovation? Isn't a prerequisite for innovation the willingness to look beyond simple, straight-forward economic arguments? To be creative for creativities sake? It's in this way that I mean the US has stopped innovating.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- eclipxe 14y ago
  We have the parking light indicator thing here too. San Jose, Santana Row...
  - jballanc 14y ago
    Heh...oddly enough, I've been to Santana Row. It's the only mall in the entire US that I've been to that has anything even close, and while Santana Row does tell you what levels have free spots, the last time I was there they still didn't have indicator lights above each individual spot. ...but, again, it's not any one particular "invention" but rather the whole attitude that's different. The US has gotten complacent and seems to be spending more effort on justifying why it's the greatest than on actually, you know, being the greatest.
    - 14y ago

syncopatience 14y ago

I bought bulk-size toilet paper at a Target in St. Louis and the cashier taped a plastic handle to it as she rang it up. Fear not - the US is still advancing the state of the art in toilet paper delivery.