Space is a problem. Especially in Japan, it is one of the most limiting resources. The Japanese people’s space-saving innovations are nothing short of legendary. They came up with everything from the moving parking garages to the transistor radio. So when grocery stores had a problem stocking watermelons, farmers responded with their typical creativity and invented square watermelons. The shape made transportation and storage easier and cheaper.  Customers could conveniently fit watermelons into their fridges. The deceptively simple solution enthralled geneticists and bloggers alike. To produce a square watermelon you place a growing watermelon in a tempered glass cube. As it develops, the gourd takes on the shape of the cube. A number of blogs, papers, and magazines lauded the shape as an inspirational example of out-of-the-box thinking — pun fully intended, I’m sure. But there was one inconvenient side-effect: Square watermelons are less than tasty.

Lessons learned generally run along the lines of don’t assume, be creative, question habits, look for a better way, impossibilities often aren’t. That’s decent advice, but what do you do when your innovation backfires? What did the Japanese do when their creative solution tasted bad? They sold it as art. It blew open the market for designer watermelons.

It turns out that there really is a niche for everything — if you are flexible enough to capitalize on unintended consequences.

Be careful what you wish for; you may have to learn to live with it. Lesson learned for me: when life gives you a square watermelon, roll with it.