This article completely disregards reality to make a fantasy point that flies in the face of the well-known startup wisdom: Ideas are much less important than execution. Does it use real examples from entrepreneurship to make that hugely controversial point? No. The examples have nothing to do with entrepreneurship.
> * Innovation means coming up with something useful that others have not yet thought of.*
No, innovation means applying an idea whose time has come, which probably has been tried by others before unsuccessfully, in such a way that it works. This involves great execution far more than great ideas.
Google was not the first search engine. Facebook was not the first social network. Dropbox was not the first cloud file storage system. It wasn't too late for any of those guys to look at established incumbents and just do it better.
It's funny, because I remember watching TV and hearing about this great new program call Napster (this was before it became mainstream). I was writing a program that had the exact same functionality at the time..and stopped when I went to the Napster website and realized how much further along it was. On a side note, I just went to napster.com and discovered that it's owned by Best Buy.
> * Innovation means coming up with something useful that others have not yet thought of.*
No, innovation means applying an idea whose time has come, which probably has been tried by others before unsuccessfully, in such a way that it works. This involves great execution far more than great ideas.
Skip this article. Not worth your time.