Pioneers, innovators and developers
Some people change the way others live, travel or think. Historians sort many of them into three groups. The labels overlap, so choosing the right one for a person makes you look closely at what that person actually did.
Originally, a person who went into unknown or unclaimed land to settle it. Today it also means someone who opens up a new area of thought, research or development.
A person who creates or introduces something new.
A person who takes an existing idea or product further, improving it or making it work in practice.
A quick way to tell them apart:
- A pioneer goes first into new territory, whether that is a mountain range or a new field such as human rights.
- An innovator brings something into the world that was not there before.
- A developer starts from something that already exists and makes it better, cheaper or more useful.
Electric light bulbs existed before Thomas Edison worked on them, but they were unreliable, expensive and burned out quickly.
Edison made a bulb that lasted many hours. On the light bulb, then, Edison looks more like a developer than an innovator.
Do not treat the labels as boxes that only hold one person each. One individual can be a pioneer in one part of their life and a developer in another. Give a reason for every label you choose.
Why a person succeeds is just as important as what they achieved. A key idea is that how significant a pioneer, innovator or developer becomes depends on the time and place in which they live. The same talent might go nowhere in one country or century and change the world in another. The lesson on Industrial Revolution inventions covers the work of Arkwright, Crompton, Darby and Watt, and you can test all three labels on them too.
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