Desperation, innovation

World War II was touted as one of the most tragic periods in recent history, but at the same time, it is also one of the most technologically innovative periods in recent history.

So many things were invented during that period, from bombs to medicine, communication technologies to synthetic rubber, we owe so much to WWII.

In hindsight, it comes as no surprise. Desperation leads to innovation, if we don’t find better ways to move our troops around, better ways to communicate, better ways to gather data, better ways to treat injuries, better ways to attack our enemies, and so on, then we’re all gonna die.

But that’s not the whole story. When a problem becomes so urgent and so vital, people stopped caring about petty things. They’ll sooner throw all their money and manpower at the problem than complain about the cost or minor issues. If there’s a problem, they get it fixed.

They’re no longer afraid of taking risks, or trying new things, or proposing ideas that sound crazy and ridiculous, they no longer care about failure or what others might think of them. Because suddenly, none of that matters anymore. It’s either do or die, what do you care about?

It’s similar to when a pandemic hits and all of a sudden, we’re seeing so much innovation in medicine and vaccine testing, supply chain distribution and logistics, and the sudden growth of digital technologies and remote work.

Desperation leads to innovation, just like how last-minute panic can induce all sorts of creativity, maybe we should be grateful that life is full of ups and downs (mostly downs) and appreciate that even bad things can be good for us in the long run.