Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Inefficiencies are sometimes the next product
Efficiency's hidden cost
For the best founders, a greatest strength can become a greatest weakness. Many companies get very good at execution and very systematic, and by eliminating points of friction they also eliminate inefficiencies.
Lunch-table ideas
Some of those inefficiencies are the next product or the next idea. A handful of engineers sitting around at lunch can come up with the next innovation, and when everything is tuned for efficiency, that kind of work can end up unfueled or unfunded.
Funding later horizons
In the afternoon, the best entrepreneurs turn around and dream about the second horizon or the third, fuel innovative efforts, and pick those things out.
Why does extreme efficiency choke innovation?
Experiments have uncertain payoffs, so they look wasteful when judged against near-term output. Organizations with no spare capacity tend to cut them first. Some companies set time aside on purpose: Google described its "20 percent time" policy in its 2004 IPO letter.
How did 3M make room for side projects?
3M has long let technical staff spend part of their time on projects of their own choosing. Post-it Notes came out of that environment, built on a low-tack adhesive developed by Spencer Silver in the 1960s and put to use by Art Fry in the 1970s. The product reached the whole United States market in 1980.
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