This post is syndicated from Max's shared items in Google Reader, by James L. McQuivey

Everyone wants to create the next big thing. In the tech world, that desire has been translated as: “How can I invent the next iPad?”

The question, no matter how it’s asked, is the wrong one. When people ask about the next big thing, they see innovation as a linear progression toward some brand new, revolutionary technology. Naturally, everyone is trying to invent that new “thing,” but there is no straight line and no linear pattern to innovation.

Thanks to this demise of linear innovation, the next big thing isn’t going to take years of research and development. It won’t be developed in a big scientific lab by dozens of Ph.Ds; it won’t have a public launch date over which the press drools; and it won’t take years to generate millions of dollars.

Instead, the next big thing is going to come from left field. It will bundle together a patchwork of innovations in a seemingly amorphous way. The next big thing will be created by innovating the “adjacent possible.” The term was first used by Steven Johnson, who borrowed it from evolutionary biology. Basically, it refers to any innovation that stems directly from the present. The iPad, as an example, didn’t reinvent the wheel, but instead reapplied the concepts of Apple’s iPhone and laptops into a new, revolutionary product.

The genius of Apple’s accomplishment didn’t involve invention, but adjacent (Read more...)