Borne of necessity
I heard this somewhere, can't recall exactly where though.
" Innovations are usually borne of curiousity, not of necessity."
I am attracted to this quote, especially when people ask me the question: " So what are you going to do with you math's degree, teach?"
A common lay person's mentality (though not everybody) in developing countries I think. The quest for knowledge is never an end to it self. Knowledge is power after, all, but takes on a different slant from what it is understood in the West. Power to change from a backwater country to a developed modern state. And of course, being the Asians we all are, developed means more money first for me, and then for everyone-and a status to go at the same time.
So when it comes to innovation, we see it as a response to the problem: " How can I use this to earn more money for myself." The urge to innovate and to change-in orther words-is never because we are curious (or 'for it's own sake') but to keep up with the times (read the 'West'), and too survive (this is not merely a Singaporean excuse, M'sian leaders use this sometimes as well).
Being the cynic I am, I just realized that 'survival' is a relative term-in the sense that we are measuring ourselves against a 'potential threat' to a 'desired but not currently available' way of life. Why is the West so developed in the first place? Isn't it because of innovation, enterpreneurship and daring that made them who they are today? Isn't it because of the innate curiousity to discover and create-and not to compare themselves to another (because there wasn't any other culture as developed as theirs)
It is rather ironic that we talk about 'developed status' using a Western definition of the term. Invariable, we are concerned more on our status (Think the Selangor state status fiasco), on what we can call ourselves instead of emphasizing the true content of modernization-which is unfettered freedom to innovate.
" Innovations are usually borne of curiousity, not of necessity."
I am attracted to this quote, especially when people ask me the question: " So what are you going to do with you math's degree, teach?"
A common lay person's mentality (though not everybody) in developing countries I think. The quest for knowledge is never an end to it self. Knowledge is power after, all, but takes on a different slant from what it is understood in the West. Power to change from a backwater country to a developed modern state. And of course, being the Asians we all are, developed means more money first for me, and then for everyone-and a status to go at the same time.
So when it comes to innovation, we see it as a response to the problem: " How can I use this to earn more money for myself." The urge to innovate and to change-in orther words-is never because we are curious (or 'for it's own sake') but to keep up with the times (read the 'West'), and too survive (this is not merely a Singaporean excuse, M'sian leaders use this sometimes as well).
Being the cynic I am, I just realized that 'survival' is a relative term-in the sense that we are measuring ourselves against a 'potential threat' to a 'desired but not currently available' way of life. Why is the West so developed in the first place? Isn't it because of innovation, enterpreneurship and daring that made them who they are today? Isn't it because of the innate curiousity to discover and create-and not to compare themselves to another (because there wasn't any other culture as developed as theirs)
It is rather ironic that we talk about 'developed status' using a Western definition of the term. Invariable, we are concerned more on our status (Think the Selangor state status fiasco), on what we can call ourselves instead of emphasizing the true content of modernization-which is unfettered freedom to innovate.
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on Saturday, July 23, 2005 at 7:31 AM.
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