What We Can Learn About Innovation From Steve Jobs and The Entertainment Industry

I seems to do well when I go into talking about all sorts of random topics. I ave done some good analysis posts too. So I decided to do some free writing on Technology and Entertainment (especially considering the innovations and going beyond boundaries). I'm not a journalist and I'not going to try to be like one. I'll write this like a blog I write about subjects I love.

Steve Jobs and Creating New Products

Steve Jobs is easily one of the greatest innovators of your time. We can really feel his loss when we look at the company he built. Apple Inc ushered in the era of smartphones and tablets. iPod was revolutionary and all their products are compatible and quality and new and exciting things are guaranteed. At least things used to be like that. So how did Jobs managed all these thing? I'd say let's ask the man himself.

“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

Sometimes different industries are connected by similar threads. Entertainment industry requires innovation. Instead of gadgets they produce movies, anime, TV, games etc. Look at the history and look at all the big changes ad movements that happened. It was always this one big bold movie that broke the mold. When X-Men, Spider-Man and Blade movies came out as comic book movies, erotic thrillers were pretty big in Hollywood. Now we can barely find any good erotic thrillers. But we have tons of comic book movies that just seem like they were straight out of some formula. I mean what's the last time anything that MCU did came as a suprise? Joss Whedon made a great movie called Avengers and everything else that came after burrowed too much from the original.

Transformers has already felt this franchise fatigue after repeating the exact same (entertaining) formula 5 times in a row. When you use focus groups it's a lot like an echo chamber. You forget all that creativity and fire in the belly. I haven't made any movies or anime. But I've written stuff both at school and on Busy/Steemit. When I'm writing for an exam like say..... Literature, I'm actually writing to get some marks from the teacher. Even when I mean everything I write, I have to sacrifice/overlook many interesting point sand observations because I have to fit my answer to a certain mold/form. Innovation on the other hand is all about breaking molds.

That was pretty much what the iPad was. It was a laptop screen made smaller and turned into sort of a mobile phone. You use it just like a mobile but the things you use it for are completely different. Personally I prefer to do my reading and watching videos/movies on a tab instead of a phone.

Where Does Innovation Come from?

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

I'll give you a great example. Have you seen the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? It's pretty good but it was a flop. Now let me ask you about 300 and Sin City. Have you seen them? Do you know them? I'm sure you do. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was the first movie to introduce that innovative style of blending actors with CG sets. There is even a term for that called "Digital backlot". Now let's hear some words from the creators of Sky Captain.

Kerry Conran has stated that he did not intend to create a new genre or medium, nor did he use his method of shooting on blue-screen as a gimmick. In his interview with John Joseph Adams, he stated: "I have always come at this from the perspective of filmmaking and developed the techniques used in this film out of necessity and never really sought to interest other computer aficionados". However, he did acknowledge that his film had indeed become influential, albeit unintentionally: "That wasn't really the intention. Whether or not that what evolved from this maybe... which is a possibility. The intention was to tell that particular story with those particular visuals that we used.... and if history says it’s something else...."
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They weren't forcing themselves to create the next big thing. Instead they let the vision pull them in the right direction. In Alice in Wonderland there was a quote that said "If you know where to go, any road will take you there" (I'm just paraphrasing). Innovations seem to happen in a very similar way. I've seen many multiplayer games trying to be the next big E-Sports game or the Next big World of Warcraft and end up failing miserly. If you are trying to make your work like the their person's work, why should anyone pick your creation instead of just sticking with the one that already exist?

“When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions.”

Characters like Joker or Doctor Who didn't just came out into existence suddenly. Things like Batman V Superman came even later. Even steemit interface says that it is still in beta. There is a lot of room for improvement ad I see a lot of great discussions going on STEEM blockchain. There are also great talks on Reddit and Medium regarding other blockchain projects. I don't know how many people could imagine a social media platform 100% powered by blockchain at the time Bitcoin was firs created. It should have looked impossible. But here we are! This brings me to one last quote from the visionary Steve Jobs.

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

I think this is a great message for anyone on the blockchain and anyone who is trying to do anything that matters. While in our little box we may only notice the flaws. I've seen many directors who made what I'd consider masterpieces of their respective genres describe seeing their final cuts and thinking they ended up making something so below the proper standards because they are noticing flaws in every single scene they made. So take your time to see the great stuff and push yourself with a vision in mind and maybe one day you'll end up becoming a great innovator :)