Being the best at what you do vs. inventing

Don’t get me wrong. It is totally possible to be the best at what you do and invent as well. But, usually, people try to be better than others in the field and don’t bother improving the field itself. Of course, one could argue that there is no need for inventing anything new as there is no responsibility to. People usually ask for making product x in y time. They don’t ask for inventing a new product. Inventing should be a responsibility and not a luxury. An invention does not need to be material. One can invent a new style or method of doing things. How efficient that method would be, is another story. “Being the best” — catchy line isn’t it. I personally don’t think that there is any one ‘best’ person in any field. “Being among the best” would be a more appropriate phrase. The path to being among the best is difficult but a straightforward one. You do something and you keep doing it, learning from your mistakes and improving. After a while, perhaps a long one, you will find yourself becoming really good at it and eventually you will be among the best. But have you really invented anything? During the journey, a lot of things might have changed. Your tools might have changed. Processes might have changed. You might have changed as well. But have you done something that has a widespread impact? Are you just really good at doing things x, y and z? Have you given something new to the community? A new method or a new product?

In the field of art and design, a new method or style could be considered an invention. A mistake can be considered a new style of art if you are particularly famous. If you are a programmer, well, needless to say, a new framework, a new ecosystem, a new language or a new way of leveraging existing technology to solve current challenges, among other things, could be considered an invention. Adding a new feature to an existing program (i.e. creating a plugin) that is not currently present could also be a small invention. Our world needs efficient ways of doing things. We humans have limited lifespans. We cannot waste our time making the same mistakes that people who came before us made. We should not only be good at what we do, but also identify the challenges in the field we are in and attempt to tackle them so that other people who follow in our footsteps get better products or learn a better, efficient workflow. It is understandable that the field you choose might not have much scope for material invention. But there are better ways of doing things. Better ways of getting to a point which currently take long. We not only need people who are good at doing thing x. We need people who can invent and improve the way we do things so that we can spend less time chasing our goals (and perhaps, more time with family).