Innovation or Invention?

A lot of big companies were born either from an existing idea (innovation) or a new idea (invention).

In the case of innovation, existing products are reimagined. In other words, make it better (and perhaps a little more niche-focused.) Google was not new when it was first introduced. Many search engines including Yahoo! and AltaVista rocked their timeline. What Google did was that it did what others did but better. They introduced complex algorithms that sort and rank webpages automatically instead of curating manually for specific queries.

In the case of invention, new products are manifested from the inventors's mind. Internet is an invention. Something new, something never seen before, that is called an invention.

Statement 1: In the online world, there is certainly more innovation than invention. Existing services/products are reimagined, for example, Spotify.

Statement 2: In the physical world, there is more invention that innovation.

Which is better - innovation or invention? Well I cannot answer that, if you build something remarkable and GREAT it will work anyway.

Maybe, just maybe, if we could reverse Statements 1 and 2, more invention in the online world and more innovation in the physical world, we could revolutionize the world.

A question for you: Is ChatGPT an innovation or invention?

Cheers!