The Long Nose of Innovation

These days I have been thinking about innovation. We live in a time of what seems unprecendented innovation. But is that really true? Are the times we live so different from the speed of innovation from the past? One of my favorite bloggers is Clive Thompson. He is a regular contributor to Wired magazine. He always makes me think about things in new and fresh ways. In one of his latest articles for Wired he talks about the breakthrough myth.

Bill Buxton currently the principal researcher at Microsoft talks about "the long nose" theory of innovation. Here is the concept: big ideas poke their nose into the world very slowly, easing gradually into view." Buxton calls most billion-dollar breakthrough ideas surprisingly obvious.
So use the "long nose" method, prospect and mine looking for concepts that are already successful in one field so you can bring them to another! I like the way Clive says it..innovation "happens slowly the nose knows!"