懒惰是创新之母

转载WebEx（Cisco新收购的公司）的blog中有趣的一条，原因是我多年前曾经跟家人谈起这个话题，跟这个blog的作者持相同的观点。那时还提到中国人为什么发明少，主要是因为太勤快。很多事情能用现有的工具解决，就凑合着用，不能突破传统另辟蹊径，We got to be thinking out of box。中国人吃了那么多年米饭，却是日本人发明了电饭煲。

教育丫丫，同样要有平衡：既要培养勤奋的精神，又要让她保持对创新的渴望。

Laziness is the true mother of invention.

2/13/2007 | posted by

cheris

Some of the best things invented were born out of laziness. Does anyone under 30 remember what it was like to change the channel without a remote?

The phrase used to be "turn the channel" because a clunky, old knob was used to change channels. And there wasn't a parent alive who didn't use their kids as their "remote control." From microwave ovens to cell phones to iPods, all the coolest stuff comes from an idea to do things easier and faster. Now comes the latest technology to do cool stuff at work, WebEx Connect.

The concept of having my whole work world at my finger tips is a thrilling thought. There's a great deal of repetition in troubleshooting, so for me, I want tools for everything to speed up the process. Accessing the web logs, querying the database, running various API commands with different variables. It takes longer to get the point that I can do the activity than it does to actually perform the activity.

It's true, you can download and/or install a variety of tools that can make each task easier. But imagine if you had the ability to quickly build one tool that you could enter in a couple of options and it does all the work for you!

Maybe it only saves 15 minutes each time you use it, but that's 15 minutes EVERY time. This can quickly add up and suddenly you actually might have time to take the hour lunch you're supposed to enjoy every day.

Wow ... I get to take a lunch hour? Cool!