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The Myth of the Lone Inventor
Codex The Sloth writes "Malcolm Gladwell (who amongst other things, wrote "The Tipping Point") has written an article for the New Yorker claiming that the role of the lone inventor is over. The example of Philo T. Fransworth (the "inventor" of Television) who failed because (amongst other reasons) he didn't have the big resources of a company to allow him to focus on his innovations. The thesis is that it is rare to have a single innovation that makes a product workable and that getting all of the inovations together requires a (large) corporation. No doubt others feel different."
Didn't he piss away something like $100 million in investor monies, and hire dozens of people, to build that stupid two wheeled lump of doo-doo?
We see a story that basically describes the theft of an idea and the ruin of a man. The conclusion that the author wants us to draw from this story is that individuals are powerless to bring new ideas to market and it is better to join a corporation to accomplish this. What bunk! The moral I am getting from this story (as if I did not know this already) is that big corporations use whatever means are at their disposal, whether ethical or unethical, to make a buck and crush anyone who is in their way.