On Innovation

I was on a road trip with my fiancee', Jennifer, awhile back and she commented on how sad it was that things all over the world seem to be the same. It's like some template was enforced on the human race and we just follow the same cycle of things. We're all trying to lose weight, we all eat at the same fast food places, all the advertisements look identical and we can all find a Wal-Mart that looks like every other Wal-Mart in existance.

For some reason this level of homogeny exists while at the same time we rally around the cause of freedom and individual expression. It's a fact I find amusing. Amusing and true, I might add.

So, yesterday, the great folks at Nintendo Entertainment in Japan unveiled a controller for their new gaming system which is set to debut sometime in 2006. You can find more specifics on the whole thing over at Team Fremont, but I will tell you that I find it exciting.

See, this crazy contraption has some sort of motion sensor in it that interacts with different games. You can hold it like a paper airlplane and fly your onscreen plane. You can use it like a laser pointer and target objects. You can rotate it with your wrist to control the angle of deflection on your hockey stick. It's completely different than any other controller that exists.
And that's exciting. Exciting because it actually breaks from the norm and took some risk.

I'm tired of the same thing. I've come to realize it's the people and the things that take risks to grow and change that appeal to me most. Those folks who decide that the present isn't good enough and that going the extra mile, despite the cost, is worth all the trial and tribulation make me happy to be alive. My brother and his wife moving to LA to pursue a dream makes me happy. My fiancee going to Baton Rouge to make a difference in the lives of people she never met makes me proud to live. They didn't have to do that. They could have remained safe and happy but instead took the more dangerous, more creative route. And now a company with the history and money of Nintendo deciding to forego what the others are doing just to be a creative force in the industry.

Now that's gutsy stuff. I wish we had a world full of these creative folks who want to shake the foundations of the world with their new ideas, no matter how outlandish or silly. And it motivates me to be one of them.

Ah, who am I kidding. I just want Apple to make me a Tablet Mac.