Thanks, Woz. As usual, you rock.
I loved the Inventors Hall of Fame (History Channel?) exhibit at the Museum
of Science in Boston. Do you think that Quad Zipper will be a hit? Jacket
= Parachute 4 Sky Dive.
As crazy as American Inventor made inventive people look, it also showed
the classic examples of the traps inventors can fall into, and that an
idea takes good
execution to become a reality. Doug Hall did that in sometimes startling
(some might say rude) fashion, but I think showed the harsh business
side of how critical
one must be to avoid the pitfalls of merely falling in love with an idea -to the detriment of developing their
invention more successfully- and failing that, move on. You'll have
more ideas, and some will hit, some won't. Some will be before their
time, and others might be copied. You know that better than most people in
this
community.
I think many of us have a tendency to want our inventions to adapt themselves
to our initial vision and be accepted by all, but the reality is that the
finished
product might be quite different from what we started out with. I just had
to grimace when I heard stories of people spending huge sums of cash (one
finalist
spent $80K on a game proto) and other costly missteps (time, money, mental
anguish) and misconceptions that first-time inventors have without an experienced
support
system, like an inventors organization, to learn from. http://www.inventne.org/
Some inventors lost sight of the fact that the search was for a great American
Inventor, but also (and especially) an invention that has Mass Market appeal
to sell to "everyone in America." Well, at least a very large diverse group of people.
Many of the semi-finalists were very determined to not change their designs,
which they had worked on so hard and for many years, eschewing the advice of the design teams who were charged with
helping them improve their inventions. But some were open to suggestions, and
showed a true inventive/entrepreneurial spirit. And they had great stories
of where they came from and what they wanted to do, not just for themselves,
but
to affect others in a positive way. It's a shame the show started out so American
Freak-ish, and turned off a lot of potential serious viewers just so they could
get a laugh at the inventors' expense. And some were *really* laughable. The
finalists, however, showed the tenacity, ingenuity, adaptability and heart
necessary to be a great American Inventor, and that to me was worth seeing.
</my$.02>
<shamelessAdoration> And lest I forget, thanks for all
the great work you do for education and FIRST. Maybe one day you'll be judging
*my* (future)
NonProfit's contests.:) </shamelessAdoration>
Slashdot Mirror
I loved the Inventors Hall of Fame (History Channel?) exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston. Do you think that Quad Zipper will be a hit? Jacket = Parachute 4 Sky Dive.
As crazy as American Inventor made inventive people look, it also showed the classic examples of the traps inventors can fall into, and that an idea takes good execution to become a reality. Doug Hall did that in sometimes startling (some might say rude) fashion, but I think showed the harsh business side of how critical one must be to avoid the pitfalls of merely falling in love with an idea -to the detriment of developing their invention more successfully- and failing that, move on. You'll have more ideas, and some will hit, some won't. Some will be before their time, and others might be copied. You know that better than most people in this community.
I think many of us have a tendency to want our inventions to adapt themselves to our initial vision and be accepted by all, but the reality is that the finished product might be quite different from what we started out with. I just had to grimace when I heard stories of people spending huge sums of cash (one finalist spent $80K on a game proto) and other costly missteps (time, money, mental anguish) and misconceptions that first-time inventors have without an experienced support system, like an inventors organization, to learn from. http://www.inventne.org/
Some inventors lost sight of the fact that the search was for a great American Inventor, but also (and especially) an invention that has Mass Market appeal to sell to "everyone in America." Well, at least a very large diverse group of people. Many of the semi-finalists were very determined to not change their designs, which they had worked on so hard and for many years, eschewing the advice of the design teams who were charged with helping them improve their inventions. But some were open to suggestions, and showed a true inventive/entrepreneurial spirit. And they had great stories of where they came from and what they wanted to do, not just for themselves, but to affect others in a positive way. It's a shame the show started out so American Freak-ish, and turned off a lot of potential serious viewers just so they could get a laugh at the inventors' expense. And some were *really* laughable. The finalists, however, showed the tenacity, ingenuity, adaptability and heart necessary to be a great American Inventor, and that to me was worth seeing.
<
<shamelessAdoration> And lest I forget, thanks for all the great work you do for education and FIRST. Maybe one day you'll be judging *my* (future) NonProfit's contests.
Now where's that MacBook Mini?
Peace. Thanks for playing,
Peter