Disruption, change and the status quo in the digital age
1421. Yes, it’s a date, but it’s also the title of a book. 1421 — The Year China Discovered the World to be precise, by amateur historian Gavin Menzies. There are two fascinating stories intertwined into a cool little nod to inspiration.
The Disrupter
The first story concerns itself with a former submariner with an interest in cartography, that managed to turn the historical world on it’s head. He’s a disrupter — Navada likes those. Not for the sake of disruption, but to challenge complacency and mediocrity. More than ruffling a few feathers — he celebrated the ambition of China, it’s awesome era of innovation and how resting on the cusp of complete global influence — retreated to geographic and often political solitude. His hypothesis certainly controversial and heavily criticised. It accuracy is questioned, but that doesn’t diminish it’s role is challenging the status quo and asking questions and stimulating more to discover the truth.
Tan Ta Sen from the Zhang He Society sums it quite well, “The book is very interesting, but you still need more evidence. We don’t regard it as an historical book, but as a narrative one. I want to see more proof. But at least Menzies has started something, and people could find more evidence.” (Kolesnikov-Jessop, Sonia (25 June 2005), “Did Chinese beat out Columbus?”, The New York Times, retrieved 8 June 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Menzies#cite_note-29)
His theory originated from his own history in the Navy, scouring the world and oceans that had at it’s core, map reading. From my own perspective, it was this background that provided him with the tools to recognise clues that many historians missed because of their own isolationism. And it was his passion, his curiosity and his interest that ensured persistence in uncovering truth from those clues. Fast-forward or reverse depending on where we are coming from to the last 30 years of in the age of digital with disruptive hippy come yuppie billionaires who shunned suits and shaves for jeans and stubble. The likes of Steve Jobs, Steve Bezos, Page, Zuckerberg, etc. etc. etc, redefined how businesses and businessmen are supposed to behave. The broke the mould — a little. At their core was the aim of revolution — challenging the status quo — like Gavin Menzies. Sometimes conviction conflicted with practicality. Sometimes certainty overruled accuracy (or perceived accuracy). But sometimes you see something — a few more begin to see it too — and perspectives change — others help discover or complete your journey. But it takes a disrupter to do that.
The Influencer and Innovator
The second story is the actual story — 1421. A powerful year. A year that is going to disrupt my understanding of the discovery of my home soil. As I still occasionally hum a school rhyme “In fourteen hundred in ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue…” — I feel I was cheated. 1421 was the year that China discovered the world.
In this year — China was on the crest of a wave of innovation — culture — influence, regardless of what historians hold true about the scale of Chinese exploration. In 1421 China created a landscape of architectural beauty and engineering intelligence that is at the heart of it’s legacy. It wielded an influence that was unrivalled and would be the envy of every influential YouTuber, Twitterer, Google+ er, oh yeah and maybe ever a Facebooker?
The political circumstances changed — and it pulled back from an ambition that was so vast that it could only have caused a logistical burden. It refocused it’s efforts on home soil. Ambition and influence is powerful — but it can also allow a person or a nation to lose itself. Innovation didn’t stop but there was several hundred period of reflection.
China’s sense of innovation extended back several millennium. I stand in awe of Hadrian’s wall — the Roman wall that extends across the North of England from the Tyne river on the East Coast to the sea in Cumbria. This marvel is dwarfed by the Great Wall. Epic. And it would be folly to think that ambition and innovation ended in 1423, when the supposed pause in global exploration began. It appears the China asked what’s all this for. What’s the purpose of stretching ourselves? What about the greatness in our borders?
Humanness
Passing aside the obvious link between these stories being that the story of the first is about the author of the second, the link is a lesson in humanness and nature of digital.
Gavin Menzies, the disrupter and China as the influencer and innovator tell us the story of today’s digital life. Challenging convention, innovating, influencing and now reaching a point of saturation and wanting to pull back. Wanting to look at ourselves and our lives rather than just a screen.
The driving force in all of this is passion that is rooted in not necessarily a zeal for change, but an understanding the change is happening — now a breath-taking pace — and embracing that change and stepping ahead takes us to a natural point of innovation. But it can frighten and that’s okay, if you don’t let it stop you. But help it refocus.
Gavin Menzies challenged convention — challenged understanding — not out of arrogance — but because we wasn’t locked in a paradigm that looked into itself. This runs parallel to the disruptive force of YouTube, Netflix, Love Film, et al challenging the traditional broadcast model that is only coming to terms with the cultural shift to digital media.
Digital media has a leg up, primarily because of data, it’s understanding rather than reliance on assumption — it’s powerful understanding of it’s audience and the freedom for content creators to create content they enjoy, not locked into old production systems. Anyone can create — amateurs are building content and challenging the status quo — like an amateur historian.
China’s pause on global expansionism after a golden-era of innovation and influence reminds us of the innovators, the revolutionaries and the radicals of the digital era including Apple, Microsoft and even Facebook that at times or currently have lost themselves in themselves after their own expansionism. The pace of growth and global domination can move you away from the purity of innovation. Being a gargantuan doesn’t mean a lack of innovation — Steve Jobs had innovation in his soul and whether you like him or Apple — he did leave technical legacy by using technology to help us interact more with life. (This isn’t a puff piece on Steve Jobs by the way)
Many have their periods of wilderness and return with vigour. China is re-discovering it’s influence in the world nearly 600 years after in began it’s discovery of the world. The technical and innovative ambition still exists within their veins. Thousands of years of innovation and beautiful ideas never subsided.
As old models are struggling to keep up with change because of isolated thinking, disrupters see opportunity and follow clues with zeal. Many of the “traditional” models or ways of going about connecting with the world, such as broadcasters are still relevant. Historians are still vital and their collective intelligence and academic robustness still are important to understanding. Broadcasters and movie studios still make the best content, but after reflection, they need to rediscover what they’re about — truth, beautiful content, understanding, engagement and on and on.
So the truth about the digital landscape is that it’s vast becoming the old — it’s constantly striving for change and to connect the world but risks creating a disconnected society. We could becoming to the collective period of pause on digital growth or realizing a new social understanding and the role digital has in our life.
We need disrupters to challenge the digital status quo, we need to pause for reflection, we need find what innovation truly means in our life. Innovation and change should be embraced, but in the right way. Doing it for the sake overlooks the true potential of innovation. It’s a bit like buying an outfit not because you need it, but because it’s such a good deal. You end up spending the money and having to find room in your closet for something you probably will never wear.
I don’t think Gavin Menzies wrote that book to disrupt the historical world because he WANTED to step on the sand castle and watch someone cry. He seem to WANT to find the truth and the disruption was a causal effect. And in the process he told a story about a culture that wasn’t quite ready to disrupt or be disrupted. Irony eh.
He saw an outfit he wanted to wear, not one that was just too good of a deal to pass up. So in a world fraught with one disruption after another be a disruptor with purpose. It’s okay to shake things up and be shaken. Just don’t do it “just because”.
