Looking for real life examples of South African Innovation? Connect the dots did a riff over at SARocks. She makes very valid points regarding local Innovation:
One of the things that I’ve seen come up time & time again on the blogs of our local…

Popularity is overrated. Originality is underrated, there’s something spiritual about originality – it’s holy ground…for what are we uniquely but our own original thoughts and actions.

Max, you’re on the money – leaders who invoke change have to deal with the initial chaos and have the personality to handle the inevitable criticism…if the change can be space led, it’s a bit easier – by first convincing those of your people who are known change-agents.

Think about a classroom of little ones – if you’re being mocked or humiliated for giving the WRONG answer – pretty soon you’ll learn to keep quiet until you’re fairly sure that you will have the approved tried-and-tested solution.

This is guided by the teacher: a teacher who invites curiosity and courage produces thinkers who can be guided to the best answers, and possibly stumble on some innovative ones enroute.
The former is a very successful model for manufacturing fear-driven mediocrity.

Leaders who allow for innovation have to have courage themselves to deal with the initial chaos that precedes any fresh ideas. There is always a noisy unruly failure period until new order kicks in.
Just like overworked teachers, many leaders would far prefer a controlled and quiet unit than the challenge of a class of creative thinking individuals. The latter Socratic method requires strategy, sophistication and a good deal of self-confidence.

I think this is largely true but arent we mixing two different things up here? Its one thing to express your own ingenuity and make something original but its quite another thing to make something thats original AND massively popular.
The essay by Max seems to me to be talking about the latter.