Disruptive Proactivity

Government is apparently thinking about encouraging innovation in Cambridge, again.

All innovation in Cambridge stems from a choice 800 years ago, that the University remains very proud of, when a bunch of people left Oxford and chose to be in Cambridge instead. Their successors still want to be here.

What is Cambridge for, beyond a legacy of a small bunch of refugees from Oxford? 

Because Cambridge is Cambridge, a new batch of optimism shows up each year, and some will be educated into innovators who wish to stay, as they always have, if they can stay as they always have until now.

The best way to support future innovators is to look after the place that looks after them. 

For readers with children, when you’re picking them up from school today (or think about when you did pick them up from primary school), there’s the row of pegs with children’s names on them. Which of those kids will be able to live here, in a decade or two? Which of those kids will be unable to do any of the things that Cambridge says it can do for people?

Because when people are earning above average salaries and still can’t afford to live here, that’s a problem for the staff who are necessary for that primary school to open tomorrow.

All innovation in Cambridge is entirely dependent upon the ecosystem around Cambridge.