InnovationFail
This post made it to HackerNews. I enjoyed it.
This isn’t a matter of social entrepreneurship or civic responsibility. You have every right to pursue a venture of any kind – that is what makes America great. In fact it’s the foundation of the American dream. If you want to sell backlinks, then sell backlinks. If you want to stuff your piggy bank through affiliate marketing, then by all means go for it. But do consider the fact that your derivative business creates no long term value for yourself or your country. Consider the fact that this is not innovation and it’s not the future. And finally, remember that a life of spam does not pay more than a life of innovation.
This is just my take on it, but the problem is that doing innovative things is, by defacto, riskier. The general appetite for risk seems like it has decreased for whatever reason. People are happier than ever hitting singles or doubles rather than opting for the grand slam that really revolutionizes industries and solves a problem. Not sure what the solution is, but I think it has a lot to do with institutionalizing a very concrete problem and solution or endgame (As JFK did by publicly stating an intention to put a the man on the moon during the Soviet Space race).
