or disrupting the disruptors
Keeping up with the Cambrians
I recently saw a chart that plotted the occurrence of the phrase “exponential growth” in published works over the last decades. Unsurprisingly the chart showed an exponential curve. Similarly I have started to notice a Cambrian explosion of “Cambrian explosions” … (the Cambrian Explosion was a phase in our geological record where there was an apparently very rapid increase in the diversity of life forms on Earth). I’m seeing the term applied in a broad variety of technology fields right now: as I cycle to work every day I’m seeing a Cambrian explosion of personal propulsion devices including electric skate-boards, power-assisted bicycles, hover-boards, scooters and obviously electric and potentially self-driving cars; in my day job we’re seeing a Cambrian explosion in tools and techniques to make data-centers ever more powerful and reliable (it’s not just the jobs of commercial drivers that are under threat from the new algorithms, sysadmins are endangered too); you just need to browse through Kickstarter or Indiegogo to see the explosion in ingenious ideas about how to graft ubiquitous connectivity and embedded smarts into every day objects; and while we’re at it we’re seeing a Cambrian explosion in terms to describe the ecosystem of all these smart connected devices.
Not disruptive
Contrary to popular opinion the likes of Uber and AirBnB are not disruptive innovators. At least not in the technical sense. These “unicorns” are clearly having a “disruptive” impact in the colloquial sense to their respective industries. But if we remove the label of “disruptor” and examine how they have succeeded we may get a better insight into how to replicate their successes, or even improve on them. Particularly if we broaden our remit to focus on solving not just for friction-reduction at the individual level, but also at the societal.