My favorite example of "incremental innovation" belongs to Dilbert-the cartoon, not the character. Even before the Internet was a gleam in Jeff Bezos's eye, Scott Adams-Dilbert's creator-got his syndicate to agree to attach his e-mail address to the strip.

The reason, Adams has explained, was to see what kind of reader feedback-if any-e-mail accessibility might generate. In fact, he still gets much of his best Dilbert material from reader e-mail. "Yes, they send me ideas," Adams smirked in a Washington Post online discussion. "But the lazy %#$*s refuse to draw the comic too, so I have to do that part."