Necessity is the mother of invention

People have come out with great inventions, solutions and findings that are adored the world over. Some are chanced upon, others discovered by chance or accident and others come about out of the need of a solution in some difficult or uncomfortable circumstances. Others may have outplayed the works of others to the credit, but that is not the focus of this writing.

As said, there is nothing new under sun. Fashion follows a recycled trend, engineering innovations are based upon some basic mechanism, and it is mostly the same algorithm that produces various modules in software applications. Most things have been done already, or an improvement or modification of existing solutions. Most people are satisfied with the existing solutions or tools, unless an upgrade is done on business basis, a challenge or discomfort is encountered, or time or additional features is to be factored in.

In a town enriched with resources with a lot of unoccupied apartments and majority of its inhabitants living in the old houses in the old part of the town. Not the case of the majority not wanting to be responsible but are just relaxed and cannot be bothered. Everything is made to seem out of place and difficult, and a few people are made to go through hardship and unnatural circumstances. Out of this ideas are derived for new opportunities whiles the individuals strive to keep their head afloat. Obviously, they would not want to remain in such conditions forever and would work towards some solution. The unemployment, non-working system, lack of amenities/resources, poverty, unprocessed products/raw materials would have to be channeled into opportunities.

There is the notion that if a person goes through hardship and later succeeds, it will be easier for the individual to empathize and give a helping hand to others who are in hardship. To make it uneasily detectable some members of the majority also join the choir of those put into such hardships, giving them a false impression of a general situation, and the hope to achieve. And if we are to go by the superstar model some sports teams practice, the stars are well catered, highly paid and refreshed for the extra toil and sacrifices they are put through.

In this era of technological advancement where nearly all the operations of medium-to-large enterprises is automated, tasks have become easier and faster to accomplish. Again, ingenuity or alternative methods/solutions are discovered when some workers (unknown to them) are purposely deprived of available tools, solutions, or methods of operating. Such workers would have to work out a solution to make their day-to-day job easier or quicker. Unavailability of funds to purchase an already developed solution means innovative methods would have to be deployed or an inbuilt solution implemented.

This technique has long been used to discover new innovations, be it the person forced into such situations, or the observers. In the end, when solutions and/or innovations are arrived at, it benefits society in general. Out of necessity a lot of innovations have been made. The ”impossibles” deadlock have been broken a times. And we will all agree that COVID-19 has been the most successful change agent in the digitisation efforts, and the reason to innovate.