I remember reading an amazing book a few years back called Flatland. In the book, the author imagines a 2-dimensional world where everything is like simple shapes on a piece of paper. There’s no depth, just lines.
And in order to introduce the idea of multiple dimensions, the 2-dimensional being meets a 3-dimensional person. The 3-dimensional person tries to tell the 2D hero about the third dimension, but fails. Ultimately, he has to pluck him out of his 2-dimensional plain and show him what he sees.
The book does a great job at opening your mind to comprehend a 4th dimension. But it also shows one of my favorite concepts of innovation.
I believe innovation is about solving a problem. Without a problem to solve, you’re just dreaming uselessly. But once you’ve identified a problem you need to solve, I imagine it like a line on a piece of paper. You, the 2-dimensional object, approach this line from the center. And you have the obvious choice of getting around the obstacle by either going right or left. That’s the normal thought process.
But for me, innovation is about finding one of the less obvious ways to get around the obstacle. It’s about thinking on a different plain. A different dimension.
It appears there are only two ways to solve the problem, but there are many more. You could go over the obstacle. Under the obstacle. You could even bend the sheet of paper and hop to the other side.
Now, this is all theoretical, but I don’t see innovation as that much different. Innovation is about bending the rules or changing your perspective. It’s getting around your pre-supposition that the world is flat and realizing there’s more to the problem than what you see.
I encourage you to grab the book. Or if nothing else, just realize there’s a whole new plain to any problem you encounter. There are always more solutions than what seems obvious.
