December 2009
3 posts
Does technology drive history?
I’ve come to a disconcerting conclusion: design research is great when it comes to improving existing product categories but essentially useless when it comes to new, innovative breakthroughs. I reached this conclusion through examination of a range of product innovations, most especially looking at those major conceptual breakthroughs that have had huge impact upon society as well as the...
“Bounded applicability simply states that any method or tool has limits. You know...”
– Dave Snowden, Mithridatism & excess: an argument for bounded applicability (2006)
“We may wish for easier, all-purpose analyses, and for simpler, magical,...”
– Death and Life of the great American Cities, Jane Jacob (Vintage) 1961