Many innovations, for all their progress, leave a sailboat of forgotten goodness behind. And in our race to innovate, we instinctively reject people who hold on to the past. We can’t know that they don’t have a point. Perhaps they’ve pointed out something timeless that we didn’t think about. Is there an innovation that can replace a hug from your mom? Ice cream on a summer day? Is a strip mall a worthy substitute for an open meadow, or the latest Gehry office tower for the Chrysler Building? The passion of creation leaves us partially blind; we’re focused so intently on what we’re making that we forget the good things already here, or that our innovations might leave behind. And while we laugh at groups who reject innovation as a concept — the Luddites, the Amish, or our technophobic friends — we are all just as resistant as they are, but in different ways. We follow conventions in our dress, speech, diets, and work schedules. We drive on the same side of the road, put socks on before our shoes, and eat dinner with knives and forks. Even the greatest innovators of all time, the big revolutionaries and radicals, followed the traditions of their day. No one innovates in all ways all the time; in fact, the biggest, baddest innovators in history followed more conventions than they broke.
The final passage from this book. Its good to constantly think about how to improve things. However, sometimes, we do need to take a step back and focus on the good things we already have. It will also do us good to help those whom got left behind in this world of constant change.
