Time-Worn

16 Dec Time-Worn

David Sax’s NY Times article: End the Innovation Obsession explored how society values innovation. But innovation cuts both ways. To please investors, customers and the media, firms put a priority on inventing new technology. Unfortunately, many of those innovations wind up in landfills or the dustbin of history. How many laptops are in your closet?

The flip side is a “human-centric future that reflects where we’ve been, what we’ve learned, and how we actually want to live.” This includes redesigning streets to accommodate bicycles, carving out car-free zones, and changing our work spaces. (In 2017, WeWork was valued at $20 billion.) Amazon is opening bookstores. Walmart is rolling out food halls, farmer’s markets, bike rentals and parks. And farm-to-table is a robust movement. 

When we founded Eloqui in 2000, we studied advancements in neuroscience and fMRI insights into brain function to bring innovation to the communication field. But the real value came when we included storytelling, rehearsal and performance skills from the professional’s playbook. Then we leveraged rhetoric from Aristotle, whose findings are over 2,500 years old. His speaking principles of thought, emotionand character are still fresh today. History moves in large, ever expanding loops. But the genius is to never eliminate things of value, like great speaking, bicycles and fresh vegetables.