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Forget the disruptors and the innovators. It’s the maintainers who keep the world turning.

Show Notes:
https://www.citylab.com/design/2016/04/how-maintainers-not-innovators-make-the-world-turn/477468/
http://themaintainers.org

EPISODE EXCERPT

Disruption has been one of Matt’s favourite MSP topics this year. I’ve lost count of the number of times that he’s complained about the twin cults of disruption and innovation. So, today, we’re looking at the flip-sides of disruption and innovation: us. The people who maintain society.

Where does this idea of Maintainers come from?
II was recently reading something online…

At New scientist?
Ha. No. You’re wrong.
See, I do have more than one source of information.
It’s a site called City Lab, which is one of The Atlantic’s partner sites.
And it talks about the technologies and cultural movements that are shaping the cities of the future.
So they wrote an article about a group of academics who have started a website and a conference called The Maintainers. themaintainers.org.
And it’s something for the rest of us, the ones who live at the other end of the innovation and disruption curve.

The ones who do nothing?
Thank you for the provocative question.
But why do we have this idea that unless you’re a visionary you don’t do anything worthwhile?
So yeah, we talk about all the people who move fast and break stuff.
But the problem with that is that someone has to try and put that broken society back together again.
I don’t want to bang on an obvious drum, but when you go online you see how polarised people are.
How set in their ways.
Even the most innocuous comments are taken out of context and people experience the weight of these social media pile ons.
I’ve had one or two myself.

Is that because you’re seen as being outspokenly anti-child?
Weirdly no one seems to mind that so much.
Probably because they think everyone else’s kids are hellspawn.
And they’re right, with the exception of the exception of their own kids.
No, I’m not going to revisit those moments.
This idea of breaking stuff seems to have infected our consciousness way beyond

Are we heading back to the Faker’s Quo from a couple of weeks ago?
We’re not quite in the same area.
Although I suppose you could see these episodes as complementing each other.
So i’ll try and avoid talking about the status quo too much.
Coming back to the Maintainers. This is the 99.9% of people who aren’t engaged in messing things up.
We’re the people who are either working within those innovative and disruptive companies and trying to make the crazy ideas work.
And the rest of us who are doing things that aren’t classed as disruptive or innovative, but are essential for the functioning of society.