Hacking the System - How to Innovate

10 Nov 2009

computer hacker Looking through Fast Company recently, I was reading an article about a man that is set to completely destroy an industry, not out of malice, but out of a desire to innovate and improve upon modern systems.

Now, looking at this from a traditional perspective, one could argue that this man is just doing what humans do best, which is to create new technology to make our lives easier.

However, I’m not so sure I agree. I prefer to think of it as an example of how mankind loves to hack the systems that others have invented. We hate rules and boundaries annoy us.

We want to see our passions and our visions become reality. So, what great minds, like Steve Perlman do, is find a way around the frameworks and gatekeepers that bind us and create a whole new game entirely.

Changing the Game

What he’s doing, is taking console and PC gaming off of the platform and onto the cloud, a result which will probably do to the gaming industry what Napster did to the music industry. Realize that gaming is a billion dollar business, and that if this technology is successful, it will probably be adopted by the TV and film industry, Steve is sitting at the brink of creating an entirely new playing field that is sure to be the scene for many new battles and many new innovations to come.

In their book, Trust Agents, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith spend a lot of time talking about this concept. They break it down into a 3 part process:

Step 1: Playing the Game

Step 2:Hacking the Game

Step 3: Program the Game

You know what? They are absolutely right. As it stands now, the little guy has absolutely no chance at all of upending the music, film, or gaming industries, but if someone can create a brand new framework that makes the old ones irrelevant, then Bam! we’ve got a whole new ball game.
The same is true of many industries, which is why people like you and I need to stop focusing on how we can adapt to the current frameworks and instead learn how we can hack them in order to create our own rules to play by.

Create the Future

MySpace and Facebook did this by hacking internet communities. Twitter did it by hacking Facebook and blogging communities. Netflix did it by hacking Blockbuster, who is now paying the price by adapting too late.
There are dozens of other examples that I could list, and probably hundreds more that I’m not aware of. The point is that new opportunities are created when the need for new systems arises.

What can you do to hack the systems that bind you? Can you change what you sell so that you can market to a brand new audience? Can you stop selling eBooks and instead create a website that works like an eBook? Instead of creating a magazine can you create a digital newsletter that is better and cheaper? What about video…can you create a system that puts YouTube out of business?

Think about what it would take to level the playing field in your industry and then find a way to make it happen. If you don’t have the power to do it on your own, then find a partner that can empower you to do so.

I’m already thinking about how I can create my army of killer robots to help me take over the world…which one of you are going to beat me to it?

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