How to foster innovation

November 24, 2003 | Source: KurzweilAI

With the pace of innovation doubling every decade, inventors should “target the world when the product is launched, not when the project is launched,” said Ray Kurzweil in a keynote speech at the recent 8th Annual Independent Inventors Conference in Philadelphia, presented by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Kurzweil offered several other tips to inventors. For example:

  • Watch for”false pretenders”: an upstart threatens to eclipse older technology but the new technology misses key elements, so its failure reinforces belief by technology conservatives that the old technology will live forever. But new versions of upstart technology can disrupt the old technology. Case in point: electronic books, which failed for now, but will succeed: “books will be obsolete before the decade is out.”
  • Fantasize that you’re giving a speech years from now and you’re explaining how you solved the problem.
  • Create devoted passionate teams and encourage open and wide communication.
  • Organize project milestones around demos.
  • Write the Advertising Brochure first (forces you to articulate features and benefits) and recruit the beneficiaries (users) to help invent the technology.
  • Invent while you sleep, using lucid dreaming.