For years, people have bemoaned the sorry state of innovation. Compared with the great inventions of the industrial era, the inventions of our own time seem pathetic. In today’s Sunday Rerun, I offer a different take: We’re as innovative as ever, but the focus of innovation has shifted. The post originally appeared in 2012.

“If you could choose only one of the following two inventions, indoor plumbing or the Internet, which would you choose?...