[Also published in Huffington Post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katherine-warman-kern/the-challenge_b_666489.html]
I was invited to by Arianna to blog on Huffington Post because of this email I sent regarding her review of John Kao's book, Innovation Nation, How America is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why it Matters, and What We Can Do to Get it Back.
The title of her review is a challenge: "Complacent America Needs to be an Innovation Nation".
She explains that John Kao points out that we haven't really had a major innovation period since the ramping up for WWII and going to the Moon.
I agree with her that a hurdle is the "culture of me" . . .
“innovation that is not informed solely by a desire to invent something that will make you rich, but to invent something that will enhance the overall good of society.”
. . . and I applaud her for reflecting a "culture of we" by finding something to agree with conservative David Brooks about:
“Brooks details how revolutions on both the left and the right have led to ‘an atomized, segmented society’ — one that needs to be replaced by a society ‘oriented around relationships and associations.’"
But I also challenged her as a representative of the media . . .
"But I am compelled to write to you, Arianna, and others in the media, because we need more than a one-off “sermon”. The media has contributed to the culture of me for a very long time by promoting the benefits of celebrity, nurturing the myth that happiness is found when it is 'all about me'. Instead of trying to manipulate or control culture, the recommendation is to reflect culture."
And she is challenging me right back, by inviting me to blog on Huffington Post.
Here it goes . . .
