Ideality in Innovation

A great invention stems from considering the ideal state of a system under consideration. An Ideal product gives you all the benefits you want without any cost or harmful effects.  A good way to assess the ideality of a product is by means of the ideality equation:

Harmful effects may be equated either as damage costs, mitigation costs or adaptation costs. When technology is new, cost and harmful effects are high.  As maturity comes, these negative factors are minimized.