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Daily Inspiration Quote by Dean Kamen

"An innovation is one of those things that society looks at and says, if we make this part of the way we live and work, it will change the way we live and work"

About this Quote

Innovation, for Dean Kamen, isn’t a sparkly gadget moment; it’s a social contract. His definition quietly drags “innovation” out of the lab and into the messier arena where it actually succeeds or fails: adoption. The pivot in the line is “society looks at and says.” That’s the tell. Kamen frames invention as a proposal the public must ratify, not a miracle bestowed by lone geniuses. In an era that loves founder mythology, he’s insisting the decisive act is collective permission.

The repetition - “the way we live and work” appears twice - is doing more than emphasis. It’s a checksum: real innovation doesn’t just add convenience; it rewrites routines, norms, and incentives on both sides of the work-life membrane. Kamen’s subtext is almost defensive against hype cycles. If a product doesn’t alter behavior at scale, it’s not an innovation, it’s a novelty with a press release.

Context matters here because Kamen’s career (Segway, medical devices, FIRST Robotics, ambitious tech-for-good projects) sits right on the fault line between brilliant engineering and public shrug. His wording reads like hard-earned wisdom from watching “obvious” breakthroughs meet infrastructure, regulation, cost, and culture - and sometimes lose. It’s also a subtle rebuke to Silicon Valley’s favorite shortcut: calling iteration “disruption.” Kamen offers a tougher test: will society rebuild its daily life around it? If not, it’s still just a prototype, no matter how clever the circuitry.

Quote Details

TopicTechnology
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Kamen, Dean. (n.d.). An innovation is one of those things that society looks at and says, if we make this part of the way we live and work, it will change the way we live and work. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/an-innovation-is-one-of-those-things-that-society-3258/

Chicago Style
Kamen, Dean. "An innovation is one of those things that society looks at and says, if we make this part of the way we live and work, it will change the way we live and work." FixQuotes. Accessed February 1, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/an-innovation-is-one-of-those-things-that-society-3258/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"An innovation is one of those things that society looks at and says, if we make this part of the way we live and work, it will change the way we live and work." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/an-innovation-is-one-of-those-things-that-society-3258/. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Dean Kamen

Dean Kamen (born April 5, 1951) is a Inventor from USA.

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