The Simplicity in Innovation.

We are used to associating innovation with big things. Think of modern rockets that can land upright, machines that can learn, or the internet that connects billions of people. These are the stories that make the headlines and everyone talks about them. But many of the innovations that actually change our lives are surprisingly small.

Consider the rolling suitcase.

People traveled with luggage for thousands of years, carrying their bags and trunks by hand. The first luggage was heavy. They were made of wood, leather, or metal and difficult to carry. In the 19th century, wealthy travelers typically employed porters or servants to carry their heavy trunks. By the 20th century, hotels employed bellhops just to deal with bags. And yet it wasn’t until the 1970s that wheels and luggage were finally combined.

We had wheels for 5,000 years, and we had luggage for at least as long as people had things. But no one thought of combining both.

Even the first human walked on the Moon before anyone rolled a suitcase through an airport.

Innovation doesn't require lone geniuses making great leaps forward or armies of engineers and scientists working on large projects. Most real innovation is less glamorous and simpler. It's about curiosity and noticing.

Innovation is just a better way to do something.

Adding wheels to luggage is a very simple concept. It’s the sort of solution a child might suggest. All it took was Bernard Sadow, a luggage executive, who noticed people struggling in airports and thought there had to be a better way. He didn’t need a lab, hidden math, or a breakthrough in materials. He just paid attention and noticed what others didn’t.

Although it seems straightforward, why didn’t people see this sooner? Why did it take until the 1970s for luggage to get wheels?

First, we accept the world as it is and don’t question it. We carry luggage because that’s what luggage is for: carrying. It seems stupid to ask otherwise.

Second, we lost the imagination we had as a child. As we grow up, our focus narrows. School and society train us to see things in a standard way, and we lose the ability to notice what others don’t or see alternatives. Imagination lets us question assumptions and look at problems from new angles.

The new angle or frame refers to our understanding of a problem. It includes elements, constraints, and context. Many challenges appear unsolvable because we only see them one way. But if we reframe them, new opportunities appear.

For example, for centuries, people thought of luggage as a problem of carrying.

Some questions people might have asked:

• “How can we make luggage lighter so people can carry it more easily?” The focus is on materials: use aluminum instead of wood or canvas instead of leather.
• “How can we help people carry more bags at once?” The focus in on an external solutions: hiring porters or bellhops.
• "Why carry luggage at all?" The focus changed to from improving the carrying and instead remove it entirely.

Reframing the problem from “How do we make carrying easier?” to “How do we avoid carrying altogether?” is what led to the rolling suitcase. Once we stop assuming luggage must be carried, other alternatives, like rolling it, appear. Suddenly, the solution wasn’t about stronger arms or lighter trunks but about wheels. Bernard Sadow solved the problem by noticing that we’ve been asking the wrong question.

Despite its simplicity, it took thousands of years to put wheels on a suitcase. An unsolved problem for millennia was answered only in recent decades. And that’s the misleading perception of innovation. While we imagine the future in terms of AI or colonies on Mars—and those will matter—the change that makes our life easier is likely to be something simple. The answers to some problems might sound childish at first. But that’s a sign we’re on the right track. In the end, innovation often appears in the simplest forms, like adding wheels to a bag.