Is innovation the product of inevitable progress—or unique genius?

WALTER ISAACSON, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute and author of 2014’sThe Innovators, a history of the digital revolution, and MEGAN SMITH, U.S. chief technology officer (CTO) and a former Google executive, discuss imagination, invention, and the need for a stronger Silicon Valley-Washington nexus.

MEGAN SMITH: One of my favorite expressions is: “People do things. Things don’t just magically happen.” Innovation comes out of great human ingenuity and very personal passions. WALTER ISAACSON: It’s not a passion for making profits. When Bill Gates wrote BASIC for the Altair and Steve Jobs created the Apple, they had no idea that the personal-computer revolution was about to start. They wanted to create something really cool. MS: It’s really founding teams—these small, agile teams that come together. WI: When I asked Steve Jobs near the end of his life what product was he most proud of, he said, “Making a product is hard, but what I’m most proud of is putting together Apple the company, because that was a great team and it is the team that can…

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Foreign Policy (Digital) - 1 Issue, January - February 2015

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