Is automation stifling innovation?

As a guy who writes a lot of automation scripts, I've seen 2 main paths to success:
1) Those who create their own path (high risk/high rewards)
2) Those who follow the path of another successful business model (lower risk/lower rewards)

#2 can be turned into a higher profit model by taking a successful business model created by #1 and repeating it many times, something that automation easily allows you to do.

So you will most likely see both paths followed, but since #2 is copied and repeated a lot (often automated), they are much more visible. Thus it looks like there is less innovation recently, because the folks following #1 often fail and are not very visible, or succeed and are quickly copied.

Remember, for everything that works well in any business, someone did it first and (usually) reaped the rewards. The smart ones usually shut the hell up about it as well

Good points