Video: The Opposite of Innovation

Hit the street and ask every passerby the same question, and you will be surprised at how demographics coalesce without any prompting. On a sunny Friday in March, I went to the corner of Robson and Howe, armed with a single question: What is the opposite of innovation? 

After 55 responses, the trend became clear. The under-30 crowd agreed that without innovation, life would suck (anyone remember public transit, pre-iPod?), while the business types sounded a similar note, 11 times answering “stagnation,” which is the “cessation of growth or development.” One idea animates both responses: that it’s both fun and necessary to move forward, and without innovation we could not do it.

In front of the camera, some people borrowed answers from their shyer friends; others took time to compose the perfect response. Did people’s occupations colour their answers? You be the judge. Patrick, the technology VP at a crowd-sourcing web company, was quick to say “traditionalism.” Ajay the researcher and Anna the music teacher both drew their answers from politics. And Lucas (who really is a pro wrestler) took several thoughtful minutes to hit on “unnovation.”

Of the 55 people – from retirees to students to doctors to electricians – most everyone linked innovation with progress. Except Melvin the teacher, that is. He didn’t make the final cut for editing reasons. But the only person with a dissenting answer get his two cents now: “There’s nothing necessarily wrong with not having innovation,” Melvin said. “Right now everybody is so consumed with innovation and moving forward that they forget to just enjoy what’s now.”

Kate Allen is a freelance journalist living in Vancouver. Her work has been published in the Globe and Mail, the Vancouver Sun, The Tyee, and Toronto Life. She contributed to an investigative report on the Thai shrimp industry that will air on PBS Frontline in April.