“Innovation simply means intersections,” says Iraj Islam at TEDxDhaka

Innovations of the modern era — the automobile, the telephone, the light bulb, the computer, the Internet, the iPhone — call to mind lab coats and mad professors, teams of experts, furred brows and state-of-the art technology.

To Iraj Islam, co-founder and CTO of NewsCred, innovation is simpler and more succinct. “Innovation simply means intersections: intersections of ideas, intersections of concepts, intersections of disciplines and intersections of resources,” he said during a Feb. 17 presentation at TEDxDhaka.

Noticing these connections — what Leonardo DiVinci did for art or Steve Jobs did for personal computing — does not require specialized knowledge or advanced technology. Innovation, he said, is something any six-year-old could do with a piece of paper and a pen.

“What is important is not really to be an expert at one thing,” he told the crowded Senate Hall at Dhaka University. “Each and every one of you know a little bit about the world. All you need to do is look around you. Learn a little bit. Find the intersections. Only your imagination can limit what you can do and create — to change the world.”