Evolution or Innovation?
I've been thinking about evolution and innovation lately. What is the line that separates one from the other? Dictionary.com tells us that evolution is any process of formation or growth; development; a process of gradual, peaceful, progressive growth or development; whereas, innovation is defined as something new or different introduced. To me this means that innovation IS evolution because it's a process of growth. But then again if you rely on the second definition of evolution it must be gradual or peaceful growth. If innovation occurs abruptly or disruptively, it is only innovative and not evolved. So is it better to be peacefully evolved or disruptively innovative? Oh, but how many sides of this coin exist! How many people get to vote on the idea being new? Who gets to make the judgment that it's a peaceful progression. A beaver builds a dam. That's peaceful to the beaver but could be disruptive to the hiking trails. An engineer builds a dam.