Innovating by Necessity

Just as we’ve seen in business, with the rise and fall of Blockbuster as an example, resting on our laurels instead of prioritizing new developments leads to decline and an inevitable collapse. And the same is true for civilizations at large.

The relentless curiosity for discovering what’s possible that led to rapid developments in computers in the 1970’s is the same curiosity we must adopt going forward. The next Bill Gates will not develop an operating system and the next Jeff Bezos will not build an e-commerce platform.

Rather than preserving our position in what we perceive as an evolving world, we should configure ourselves in a way that galvanizes a revolution. In Zero to One, Thiel paints the picture of globalization as an anti-tech dichotomy, one where competition is flat, and an increasing number of humans are competing to supply the same labor and making demands for the same resources. Developed nations should not look at globalization as a zero-sum game; without renewed interest in building new technologies it is unequivocally a net negative.

We urgently need a new way of thinking about business and innovation, a re-foundation of purpose and humanity, a societal desire that is birthed from overwhelming necessity.

Further advancement in technologies will at some point lead to a state of Utopia or one of Dystopia. But stagnation in regard to technological developments, will certainly result in an exponential decline of civilization as we know it.