Move Slow and Upgrade : The Power of Incremental Innovation

Author: Selinger, Evan (Rochester Institute of Technology, New York)

Business innovation

Published on 5 February 2026 by CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 240 pages, Worked examples or Exercises
147 x 224 x 21 | 430g

For far too long, tech titans peddled promises of disruptive innovation - fabricating benefits and minimizing harms. The promise of quick and easy fixes overpowered a growing chorus of critical voices, driving a sea of private and public investments into increasingly dangerous, misguided, and doomed forms of disruption, with the public paying the price. But what's the alternative? Upgrades - evidence-based, incremental change. Instead of continuing to invest in untested, high-risk innovations, constantly chasing outsized returns, upgraders seek a more proven path to proportional progress. This book dives deep into some of the most disastrous innovations of recent years - the metaverse, cryptocurrency, home surveillance, and AI, to name a few - while highlighting some of the unsung upgraders pushing real progress each day. Timely and corrective, Move Slow and Upgrade pushes us past the baseless promises of innovation, towards realistic hope.