The stereotype of technology innovation is that it gets realized by a private genius who works independently to envision and then implement a breakthrough product. Innovation is thought to be a solitary pursuit owned by the few, diametrically opposed to social pursuits, friends and partners. Steve Wozniak worked alone 16+ hours/day to assemble smaller and smaller circuit boards and innovate the first Apple IIe. He had no wife, no girlfriend, no social life. Steve Jobs made the product look good, formed business alliances, sold it and won customers. But Woz without Jobs or Jobs without Woz, and there would be no Apple.
The Neanderthal vanished from existence ~30,000 years ago succeeded by modern man. The popular notion is that modern man was smarter and more technologically advanced. But evidence suggests Neanderthals had approximately equal inventive capabilities, survival techniques and tools to show for it. The one vital difference: modern man collaborated, shared and socialized to a much greater degree than the insular, private Neanderthal. As soon as a man invented a new technique, everyone in his group knew about it and used it. By contrast, Neanderthal inventions were never fully realized and died with them. The lesson: modern man was more innovative, advanced and conditioned to survive because his culture socialized and shared its important advancements with itself, evolving and iterating through use, learning and collaboration.
Steve Wozniak and Neanderthal Man
The vast proliferation of Internet social platforms, widgets and user activity on them is not just mindless t(T)witter. It’s technology at work.
