How Old Ideas Lead to New Innovations
In 2010, Thomas Thwaites decided he wanted to build a toaster from scratch. He went to the store, bought the cheapest toaster he could find, quickly went home and broke it piece by piece.
This post was originally published on JamesClear.com .
Thwaites envisioned the toaster to be a relatively simple machine. By the time he finished disassembling it, there were already over 400 components on the floor. The toaster contained over 100 different materials, three of which were plastic, nickel, and steel.
At first, he decided to create steel components. After discovering that iron ore was essential for making steel, Thwaites called an iron mine in his area and asked if he would be allowed to use it for the project.
Surprisingly, they agreed.
Toaster project
The victory was short-lived.
When it came time to create a plastic case for his toaster, Thwaites realized that he would need crude oil to make the plastic. This time, he called BP and asked if they could get him to the oil rig and lend him some oil for the project. They immediately refused. It looks like the oil companies are not as generous as the iron mines.
Thwaites had to be content with collecting the plastic scraps and melting them into the shape of his toaster. It’s not as easy as it sounds. The homemade toaster looked more like a melted cake than a kitchen appliance.
This pattern continued throughout the life of The Toaster Project . It was almost impossible to move forward without the help of some previous process. For example, to create nickel components, he had to melt old coins. Later he will say, “I realized that if you start from scratch, you can easily spend your life making a toaster.”
Don’t start from scratch
Starting from scratch is usually a bad idea.
Too often, we believe that innovative ideas and meaningful change require a blank slate. When business projects fail, we say something like, “Back to the drawing board.” When we think of habits that we would like to change, we think, “I just need to start over.” However, creative progress is rarely the result of abandoning all previous ideas and completely rethinking the world.
Let’s consider an example from nature:
Some experts believe that bird feathers evolved from reptile scales. As a result of evolution, the scales gradually evolved into small feathers, which were first used for warmth and insulation. Eventually, these little fluffs evolved into larger feathers that could fly.
There was no magical moment when the animal kingdom said, “Let’s start from scratch and create an animal that can fly.” The development of flying birds was a gradual process of repeating and expanding on ideas that were already working.
The human flight process followed the same path. We usually think of Orville and Wilbur Wright as the inventors of modern flight. However, we rarely discuss the aviation pioneers who preceded them, such as Otto Lilienthal, Samuel Langley, and Octave Chanute. The Wright brothers learned from and relied on these people in their quest to create the world’s first flying machine.
The most creative innovations are often new combinations of old ideas . Innovative thinkers don’t create, they connect. What’s more, the most effective way to make progress is usually to improve what is already working by 1%, rather than breaking the whole system and starting over.
Iterate rather than start
The Toaster project is an example of how we often overlook the complexities of our modern world. When you buy a toaster, you don’t think about everything that needs to happen before it hits the store. You don’t notice that iron is being cut from the mountain or oil is being extracted from the ground.
For the most part, we don’t notice the amazing interconnectedness of things. This is important to understand, because in a complex world it is difficult to understand which forces are working for you and which are against you. As with buying a toaster, we tend to focus on the final product and are unaware of the many processes leading up to it.
When dealing with a complex problem, it is usually best to build on what is already working. Any idea that works now has gone through many tests. Old ideas are secret weapons because they have already managed to survive in a complex world.
Repeat, don’t create.
How innovative ideas are born | James Clear