The Process of Pursuing the New Brett Werner :: Essays Papers

The Process of Pursuing the New Brett Werner As we thought about past and current innovations, I always felt like something was missing. Right now, the conclusion I've made is that we were considering only "the New" in our discussions. I am sure that our unintentional omission of "Pursuing" the new wasn't absolute - we talked about it, especially in LivKarin's presentation of traditional/conventional/alternative/sustainable/organic farming practices. But much of our time was more devoted to the innovations of society than to the process of innovation that I think is so important. This gives me a chance to tell a few stories that I hope will increase the clarity of my distinction. My first consideration is the business ethics (perhaps interesting to Ike's CIS major) demonstrated by Siddhartha in a book by Hermann Hesse of the same name. Siddhartha goes on a business trip, which for all economic purposes is a failure. However, Siddhartha approaches the trip with an attitude of enjoying the process. In doing so, he comes back feeling good about the trip rather than upset, and since he took the time to make friends with the potential business partners, he thinks that the future business opportunities will be bright rather than carrying a stigma of disenjoyment in the eyes of others. When I started learning about undergraduate research and education, my dad introduced me to a new understanding of purpose. He said the goal of undergraduate research was to learn the process of academic contribution more than the actual contribution. By learning how to do original research and formulate (hypo-)theses, we learn not only the material, but also the process. I've tried to take this approach for my educational experiences. Some topics came up while discussing innovations that dealt with the potential for dehumanization. Visionaries and doomsayers are at odds because some feel that the new has the wonderful potential to solve all the world's problems while others believe that new innovations are dangerous and threaten the fabric of society and existence in general. In some cases it could be possible for things to be inherently evil, but more often it is a person's responsibility to use the things in a good way. Having said this, a short consideration of historical innovators and innovative processes will shed light on the subject.