Innovation is the current buzzword, but it is as ancient as life. All living organism exists today because they innovate better than their competitors. Since the human being now is at the top of the biological innovation on earth, many of us tend to like to control our environment making them structured, predictable, streamlined, under complete planning and control. And often it leads to disasters, such as the now defunct communism.
To be innovative, we need to be more flexible, to open the boarders, to be interdisciplinary, to allow ambiguity, to seek not only efficiency but also novelty, to encourage serendipity. We often want to protect our own turf, make everything under our control, have a clear boundary so we can tell "us" from "others". It is comforting to do so, but it will not lead to innovation and progress.
The most innovative environment is at the edge of two ecologies, called edge effects, exist not only in biology but also arts, sciences and technology.
There is a reason why universities in the U.S. is the most innovative organization in the world. It stressed on interdiscipline, e.g. the GE system, it allow free flow of ideas, it values questions and verification, it protects freedom to explore, it rewards sharing, it downplays hierarchy, it treat learning, teaching, generating, perserving knowledge as the highest value.
Idea: "What if the entire society is more like a university"
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