When Innovation Demands Breaking Old Molds
Or
The Nobel Prize and the Paradigmatic Hammer
In October of last year, the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to three distinguished economists: Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and fellow Canadian Peter Howitt. The prize honours their work in explaining how innovation-driven economic growth works:
Mokyr for identifying the prerequisites for sustained growth via technological progress, and Aghion & Howitt jointly for developing the theory of sustained growth through “Creative Destruction”. NobelPrize.org+3NobelPrize.org+3NobelPrize.org+3
What this means is that innovation isn’t just a nice extra — it is the main engine of long-term growth. New technologies and ideas build on each other relentlessly. And at the same time the old must sometimes be swept aside so the new can flourish.
That dynamic—creation through destruction—is exactly what the Nobel committee highlighted. NobelPrize.org+1
That insight aligns perfectly with a keystone principle in my latest book, The Professional JetPack. That concept is The Paradigmatic Hammer.
The Paradigmatic Hammer is your own tool for interrogating the frameworks you rely on.
It’s the mindset that says:
· Just because something worked once doesn’t mean it works now.
· Just because a system is familiar doesn’t mean it’s effective.
· And just because a paradigm feels safe doesn’t mean it deserves to survive.
I encourage you to begin using Paradigmatic Hammer immediately.
Once you scrutinize your work paradigms, you will discover so that are proven to work and should be kept. You will find others that are overdue for reshaping to suit you better – tap them into alignment. Still others will need to be destroyed, and rebuild better.
This isn’t about being reckless. Move fast and break things is already becoming a mantra for the irresponsible. It’s about vigilant stoicism. It’s about always throwing forward, always searching for ways to improve.
Work changes. Industries change. Expectations change. Yet many professionals cling to outdated models of success, productivity, communication or career development simply because those models feel comfortable.
But comfort is not the same as growth.
In the JetPack system, the Paradigmatic Hammer empowers you to regularly evaluate the structures guiding your work and life. It asks you to hold your assumptions up to the light. It gives you permission to question the inherited wisdom that no longer fits the realities of today’s professional world.
And most importantly, it encourages you to rebuild intentionally.
What paradigms in your career are overdue for questioning?
Where have you been accepting a system that no longer serves your goals, your values, or your potential?
These are not small questions. But they’re necessary ones. Because the combination of the Paradigmatic Hammer and the Nobel Prize lesson gives us a simple truth:
Innovation isn’t random. Innovation isn’t lucky.
Innovation happens when we dare to challenge what no longer makes sense.
So, the real question becomes:
What are YOU ready to rebuild?
Keep in touch for updates on the release, including early release copy of the book launch in 2026.