We believe in kainotomia, the emergence of thoughts on innovation. The word is derived from kainos (new) and tomos (an artifice). Initially, kainotomia had nothing to do with our current or dominant meaning of innovation as commercialised technological invention. Innovation meant ‘cutting fresh into’. It is used in the context of concrete thinking (as in ‘opening new mines’), as well as abstract thinking (’making new’). Innovation acquired its current meaning as a metaphorical use of this word. In the hands of ancient philosophers and historians, innovation is introducing change in antithesis towards established fundamentals.