Innovating to Zero Sin

Bill Gates told a TED audience that it's not enough to do better. We need to "innovate to zero."

In 2010, Bill Gates stood on the TED stage to give one of those famous talks. He spoke not as the co-founder of Microsoft, but as a philanthropist and an innovator. He wanted to motivate some of the best and brightest minds in the world to a particular task. He called the talk, "Innovating to Zero."

There are times when zero is a bad number. No one wants to get a zero on a test or performance review. We don't want to see a zero balance in our savings account or retirement fund. We don't want to be stuck in traffic going 0 miles per hour.

Sometimes, however, zero is a great number! Like zero messages in your inbox. Zero payments left on the car loan. Zero balance on a student loan or house mortgage. Zero cancer cells detected. Zero interceptions (if you're a quarterback). Zero mistakes on a quiz, a project or just about anything else.

When we talk about negative things in life, zero is a very attractive number.

On the TED stage that day, Gates shared his dream of finding a way to produce...