Innovate means spreading a product or service to society as a whole. In other words, at the scale of the city: polite, in Greek. It is therefore always a political gesture, in the etymological sense. Facebook plays politics by connecting people nationwide. Airbnb plays politics by changing the conditions for access to housing in major cities.
The “Uber Files” illuminate this reality with a harsh light. Thanks to these documents, we can observe, for the first time in detail, how the innovation strategy of a major technology company took place seeking to establish itself in a new market. Behind the appearance of a technological project, suddenly we see the lie, the chaos, the gray zone, the political alliances. All of this is shocking, and, clearly, in some respects, condemnable. But it is the very essence of the innovation process that we are discovering.
Lying refers to concealing reality. At the very beginning, an innovation is always a “monster”, that is to say an object of exceptional character or a being with supernatural powers. And the reflex when faced with a monster is flight. That’s why innovative people have to hide what they’re doing under the guise of familiarity. Among the known tactics, that which consists in naming the new thing under an old term is perhaps the most widespread.
The concept of creation and destruction
This is what the meat industry called ” chicken “ (the old, colloquial name), the monstrous novelty they had just invented: the flesh of a bird deprived of freedom, fed on unnatural foods, raised above ground, whose growth was artificially boosted thanks to hormones and safety ensured by a bath of chemicals.
Chaos is the Greek word for the mouth of the beast that opens. It refers to the concept of creation and destruction. Innovating is always at the same time creating something and destroying something else. When Allen Penn, one of Uber’s executives, writes: “Embrace the Chaos”, he describes his profession openly. This quotation is to be stored next to the “available brain time” by Mr. Patrick Le Lay (1942-2020).
An essential aspect of Travis Kalanick’s mission [créateur d’Uber] consists in separating the positive effects (creation) from the negative effects (destruction). This is what we see at work: on the one hand, his company is thriving. On the other hand, taxi drivers are in decline. But that’s not new either.
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