Optimization is the enemy of innovation

Innovation is a very difficult thing in the real world. A great invention itself is not innovation, rather its use in an innovative way is what makes it an innovation.

Innovation generally requires a complete teardown and rebuilding from the ground up. Because of that, only the ones crazy enough to think they can change the world, do. Lost in there are the ones who were crazy enough to try to innovate and failed and lost.

It is riskier to innovate, but the reward is much greater.

Because of the cost and the risk, we will often spend immense time “optimizing” rather than innovating. Many so-called “innovations” are merely collections of many optimizations rather than some truly new thing.

Rather than optimizing an existing tool, what about building a new and better one? Optimize the code, or build something new from the ground up?

When we focus too much on optimizing, we stagnate. Optimization is the enemy of innovation. Look for new tools, new methods, and new ways rather than devoting so much time trying to optimize the stuff that needs to be rebuilt.