How did you decide what to cover and keep in the book?
The way I decided to do the book was historical and then sociological. So I did the historical part, and a lot of it is [about] Obama and Reagan. And then for the sociological part, I decided I would choose a state and describe the innovation initiatives there. And I chose Maryland because I live there. I chose an industry, and the one I chose is the defense contractors.
Why?
Defense contractors love to talk about how innovative they are. There are like five industries that really abuse this language [of innovation]: defense, advertising, pharma, the tech guys, and Wall Street.
What is the creepiest thing you learned about defense contractors?
The contrast between what they make and the way they describe it, which is wholesome all-American innovation. It’s language that’s just camouflage.
You’ve written a lot about politics. Do you think there’s going to be a big midterm shift happening?
The country is definitely turning against Trump. But then again, what do I know? The polls have been so wrong all these years. I mean look, the Iran war is so unpopular, and it’s really unpopular with the very people that voted for him.
And the Democrats?
They have to have something that they stand for, and it can’t be innovation.
Was Obama the innovation candidate?
Oh yeah, absolutely. The Republicans used to love the language of creativity, and the Democrats liked the language of innovation. So [President] Carter used to talk about innovation all the time, and at the same time, Reagan was always talking about creativity. Nobody said at the time, “this is a battle between innovation and creativity.”
How do you define the difference between innovation and creativity?
Technically, innovation has to do with actually producing a product. Creativity means facility with art and language. But in practice, the words overlap all the time and are used as synonyms. They were basically synonyms and then split back in the ’60s when creativity was identified with the counterculture, and innovation was identified with engineers, military, industrial, and technology. And the counterculture really turned against all of that stuff.
