SR

Mechanics and Innovators

After being spat out of the British schooling system at 18 as a stock teenager, you start to question what you actually want to do with your life. For me, as it is for many others, the core question that defined the search was, 'What has the biggest positive impact on the world?'. Whatever I wanted to do, I knew it had to satisfyingly answer that question.

Your first port of call goes to the job that is inherently associated with altruism, medicine. What job could be more meaningful than being wholly dedicated saving people's lives? But then you ask yourself the question, does a doctor actually have the 'biggest' impact? If a doctor works 20 days per month over a 40 year career and saves lives on every single one of those days, that would equal 9,600 lives saved. That seems relatively small in the grand scheme of things. The inventor of cat's eyes  is likely to have saved 1000s if not 1,000,000s of lives all over the world. At the same time, there is a clear need for doctors in the world.

Society is made up of mechanics and innovators, both of which play essential functions. Mechanics are necessary to keep things moving by addressing immediate concerns. Innovators are necessary to move the needle on improving life, forward. Imagine a person has a life-threatening stroke. The mechanic is the neurosurgeon ready to operate to extend their life at that moment. The innovator is the research engineer who's developed the tiny robotic machinery that runs through your arteries that has a higher success rate of removing strokes than neurosurgery. In this case, without the neurosurgeon, the person dies. Whilst the research engineer can do nothing to save that persons life in the moment, however the impact of their longer-term work will help save the lives of more people in the future.

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There are of course advantages and disadvantages to both and it helps to understand these to be deliberate about the path you choose.

"According to Shiva, life is in the end about fixing holes." Abraham Verghese

The biggest benefit of being a mechanic is that the world often rewards them. Politicians and activists are great examples of mechanics that history likes to remember. From Teddy Roosevelt to Malala Yousafzai, the work of these Nobel Peace prize laureates will be etched into the history books. The reason is that there is a very viewable direct causal relationship between the mechanic and the problem. There's a fire, the mechanic pours water on the fire, the fire goes out. The simplicity makes for compelling storytelling that sucks us in to the narrative of heroes and villains that we love. This direct causal relationship brings the mechanic very close in proximity to their issue, which means they receive immediate gratification for their work. Nobel prizes, knighthoods and other socially prestigious prizes are overwhelming weighted towards mechanics.


"There comes a point where we need to stop pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in." Desmond Tutu


Innovators on the other hand are quickly forgotten and vanish into dust. Can you name a single entrepreneur from 2,000 BCE to 1600 CE? That's the majority of human history since we've had written records and you may find yourself struggling. Now take the same time period and think of a politician or activist. The chances are you were hard pressed for the former group and loose-lipped for the second. It's unlikely you know who invented Cat's eyes, even though the lifesaving impact is more than the total deaths in the Vietnam War. Given Technology A comes before Technology B, when Technology B replaces Technology A, then Technology A becomes obsolete and is no longer used. As Technology A becomes obsolete, the inventors of the technology fade with it. Even more so now than ever before, the rate of replacement is so incredibly fast that even the best innovators will be lucky to last half a generation. Think about record players, cassette players and walkman's. Could you name anyone involved in making any of them? I wouldn't even expect someone born after 2000 to know what these looked like because they have far superior technology. Whilst the impact of your innovation may be vastly larger than if you chose the path of the mechanic, be aware that you will be replaced and forgotten hastily.

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However, the magnetism of the innovator's life is knowing that the progress you made will last for eternity. The wondrous thing about technological innovation is that you never go backwards, only forwards. Once you have a vaccine that is 98% effective, you don't go back to use the one that's 70% effective. Whilst your inventions will become outdated fast, your work laid the foundation for what comes next. Black & white television screens were part of the step to reach Ultra High Definition TV and UHD will be a necessary precursor to the televisions of tomorrow. Knowing that your work has a greater purpose that won't be undone is a special feeling that makes being an innovator worth the difficulty.

The same cannot be said of the work mechanics who are generally fighting the same issues over and over again. Look at the situation on abortion rights in the US. In 1973, the landmark Roe vs Wade case was seen as a liberating step in the fight for women's rights. Yet 50 years later, it looks as if that will be overturned and there will be a withdrawal of abortion rights in 2022. There is a circular dynamic in the work of mechanics that is little about moving humanity forward and generally goes around and around. A doctor would never expect their work to be complete. They expect to see new patients with the same problems over and over again in a somewhat Sisyphusian manner.

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Society needs mechanics and innovators to function in the same way we needs lungs and a heart to function. There's no point thinking whether one organ is more important than the other - they serve distinct but equally important purposes, so no matter which you choose or have chosen, don't feel guilty.



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