Invention and Innovation Difference
When I was a child, I always thought that invention and innovation were the same thing. I mean, really, what’s so different about one idea over another? Well, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to realize that there’s actually a huge difference between invention and innovation. While innovation is constantly changing that original idea into reality, the invention is a relatively new concept. While innovation can create a new useful object, the invention takes an already existing object and changes it entirely.
There are many examples of this, but perhaps the most famous example of invention and innovation occurs when a person sees a need for something better, and then implements a solution to that need. For instance, apple computers came about when someone saw that people were actually being harmed by their computers when they were in a rough spot. This person then started to implement a better way to protect against harm and to make their computer safer so that it wouldn’t damage as much. They created a product that prevented people from being injured by their computers while at the same time made them easier to use so that more people would buy them. That is invention and innovation.
While the inventor sees a problem, creates a product to fix that problem, and makes it easier for people to use that product, the innovator comes up with a new idea to solve that problem even better. While all of these examples are important, the most important ones to me are the first two – invention and innovation. While the first two forms of creativity can come from many different inspirations, the third form is innovation. Inventive creation, coming up with a new idea, and then implementing that idea into something better, creates something new.