Time For Less Innovation / Time For Less Innovation

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Writer / Author: Renzo Gort

It is of all times and in itself not a bad thing: innovation. However, in recent years you increasingly see innovation that does not do what it promises. Think, for example, of emission-free floors or yet another new ICT system. These days, the link between the problem and the solution is getting further and further away.

By definition, innovation is not bad. After all, it is simply the innovation of a product, process or service. The problem is that there is often no problem before the solution or the solution does not solve the core of a problem but a symptom. For example, the emmision-free floor does not solve the problem but combats a symptom of excess livestock in the bioindustry.

With digital projects, this problem is many times worse. Because digital projects are often already abstract in nature, some of the core problems are forgotten. Also, problems are often sought for a new solution. You see this a lot in the world of ‘smart’ algorithms and artificial intelligence. Often, the problems these solutions are used for can be solved by a much simpler, safer, cheaper and more privacy-friendly way.

It is high time to return to a critical look at the problems rather than the solutions. Also, solutions need to look at whether they actually address the core problem or whether they combat a symptom. Furthermore, it should be considered whether a particular solution is desirable in terms of privacy and human rights, for instance.

Finally, a final appeal: not everything has to be smart. Often a simpler and dumber system is not only more privacy-friendly but often much more reliable and cheaper.

It's from all times and at its core not bad: innovation. However, in recent years innovation has been doing less of what it promises. For this you could think of the emission-free floors or yet another new IT system. The link between the problem and solution is growing further apart each year.

Innovation is not bad by definition. After all, it's simply renewing of products, ways of working or services. The problem is that too often there is no problem for the solution or that the solution doesn't solve the core of the problem, but only a symptom of it. For example, the emission-free floors don't solve the problem but tries to solve the symptom of too much nitrogen caused by too much livestock in the bio-industry.

With digital projects this problem is even worse. This is mainly because of the many layers of abstraction. Because of those layers the core problem can easily be forgotten. Next to the abstraction there is a different problem. It happens too often that there is a solution for which a problem needs to be found. Nowadays you can mainly see that in the fields of smart algorithms and artificial intelligence. The problems in those field can often be solved in a simpler, safer and cheaper manner that often also happen to be significantly more privacy friendly.

It's time that once again we should look at problems critically instead of the solutions. We also need to look if the solutions that we come up with actually solve the problem or simply a symptom. In addition, we should be more critical or the solutions we find. Especially if there is a chance it goes against privacy or human rights.

As one last call: not everything has to be smart. More often than not a simpler and dumber system is not only a lot more privacy friendly, but often also way cheaper and more reliable.