Innovation anyone?
“In 1868, Christopher Sholes patented the typewriter. Initially, he arranged the keys alphabetically, since people already knew the alphabet. Once a typist got up to speed, however, he found that many words, like ‘deal,’ caused the mechanical keys to become tangled, because the d and the e came from almost the same angle…. Sholes would be dismayed to learn that his 1878 keyboard is now sold over 200 million times every year.” Source: PULL – The Power of the Semantic Web to Transform Your Business, David Siegel
And so, the fact is, what you know (and no longer question) can hurt your creativity, productivity, business, and economy. We still use a keyboard design because of mechanical keys that no longer exist but many people learned to type using this innovative invention: “The Typewriter.” Can your past knowledge and skills make you obsolete?
This one example of being wedded to the past can be multiplied thousands of times. People don’t even question why this hasn’t been changed–except perhaps those who never learned to type and young people who can text on a cell phone just as fast as many expert QWERTY typist.
When you begin to view your world differently big things can start happening! Don’t get depressed about becoming obsolete the day after graduation.
