What happened when Andrew Carnegie funded ~1700 free libraries? “Sometimes obvious ideas work. If you want to encourage more innovation, give people better access to knowledge.” | learn more
For about a decade, there’s been a view among some sharp thinkers that innovation is slowing. There’s plenty of detailed evidence to support this view. But this week, among that same group, there is been optimism. Cracks in the Great Stagnation and Techno-optimism […]
On competing with big companies. “Every founder frets about competition from a big company, me included. We scoff at their inability to innovate and for prioritizing shareholders over customers, but still we quiver in fear.” | learn more
“As long as both sides of the bubble have a lag between when the decision to spend is made and when the results are realized, they can leapfrog each other,” creating a virtuous cycle of innovation. | learn more
From Farnam Street: “Inventing new things is hard. Getting people to accept and use new inventions is often even harder. For most people, at most times, technological stagnation has been the norm. What does it take to escape from that […]
Read on if this seems interesting: “innovation is the child of freedom and the parent of prosperity.” Available as a podcast and a transcript. | part 1 and part 2
From a16z: “Crypto cycles look chaotic, but over the long term they’ve generated steady growth of ideas, code, projects, and startups — the drivers of innovation.” | learn more
From Farnam Street: “Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Doers and thinkers from Shakespeare to Jobs, liberally “stole” inspiration from the doers and thinkers who came before. Here’s how to do it right.” | learn more
This goes deep into specific projects, but not so deep into technology that it’s impossible to understand. “So much is happening at the many layers of Bitcoin’s technology stack, it can be incredibly difficult to keep track of emerging solutions. […]
Ranjan Roy, writing for his newsletter Margins: “Did we experience real innovation in the 2010s? If you were to transport someone from 10 years ago to today, what would blow their mind?” | learn more