I’ve never understood comments like this one, offered by IBM’s executive vice president of innovation and technology:

The fact is that innovation was a little different in the 20th century. It’s not easy (now) to come up with greater and different things.

…If you’re looking for the next big thing, stop looking. There’s no such thing as the next big thing.

— Nicholas Donofrio

OK, if this was some yahoo (not Yahoo!) from a woodworking magazine or television repair shop, that’s one thing. But this guy is VP of innovation at IBM, a pretty savvy tech company.

Such statements are always proved incorrect (remember the DEC chief saying, essentially, who would want a computer in their home????). Why say something this asinine?

There is always a next big thing. Remember when the electron was discovered. Cool, but what of it?

Then came electricity, the whole world powered by electrical power.

Then transistors to turn electricity into logic.

Then integrated circuits, which smallified transistors beyond belief.

Nanotubes? Quantum cryptography?

Twenty years ago, the cell phone I have would have never even have appeared on Star Trek. Now, my five-year-old unit is an antique.

While the pace of innovation might slow until there is another disruptive technology – such as happened during the Industrial Revolution and Dot-Com Boom – but why say it’s dead?