New isn’t always better

It pushes us to a place where the old can be junked

Published - June 29, 2019 11:26 am IST

These days, there is a huge premium placed on the new, on creating something that completely breaks the mould. This focus on “new” extends to many aspects of our lives — the constant need to upgrade devices, the search for unique experiences, the urge to make over our homes, our looks and our life. It is hard to resist newness when everyone makes such a big deal of it.

Omitting the old

Recently, I heard an engineering professor talk about how, when students are asked to build or design something, the instinct is to try to do something that has never been done before, rather than trying to improve what is already there. Complete novelty is the goal. But, there could be problems with this approach, apart from the fact that it puts enormous pressure on you. One, given the multitude of ideas that exist in the world, and the enormity of what has come before, it is extremely difficult to be a genuine first timer. New discoveries and inventions in science, for instance, always acknowledge that they are, in Isaac Newton’s words, “standing on the shoulders of giants”. Even the most surprising of innovations build upon the successes and (often more importantly) the mistakes of the past. Second, even though you may not be aware of it, even the most radical idea we might have, comes from a base that draws on everything you have seen, read and experienced.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, when we are so focused on the nature of the outcome (its newness), we fail to pay sufficient attention to the purpose of the activity—the problem or need we are trying to address. Perhaps this is not so surprising, given that all through school we are so caught up with the outcome (marks) that we lose sight of the real purpose of being there (learning).

If you think closely about the nature of innovation, and look at how innovators have gone about their business, you will find that it is not so much the search for the new as the drive to find a solution that perfectly answers the need. In this process, they look at the old, understand why it hasn’t worked, and apply a series of tweaks — both mental and material — in order to arrive at improvements. The new — and improved — emerges as part of that exercise. In most cases, when you dissect this “new”, you will find that it is really more than 80 % old. The newness lies in that gap between the problem and its solution — making it better.

The other, perhaps less acknowledged issue with the obsession with newness is the waste it generates. It pushes us towards a mindset where the old can be junked for the new that replaces it, instead of encouraging us to think about accommodation and repair.

Of course, this works differently in different contexts. Where the logic of the old does not fit a new problem, you may need to throw out old principles to generate new ones. Where the old has created unforeseen problems (gas automobiles creating pollution), then too we may need to think outside the box — in other words, look for fresh ways to understand the solution space (electric cars). But even this can happen only if we have thought through all the gaps in the existing tools and techniques, and understood what is working, what needs to be fixed, and then… what needs to be created afresh.

The writer teaches at the University of Hyderabad and edits Teacher Plus. usha.bpgll@gmail.com

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