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I'm far from an expert on all of the details, but I find it amusing how similar Edison was to Steve Jobs: both non-engineers that seemed to have enough technica

by sjm-lbm 11y ago

I'm far from an expert on all of the details, but I find it amusing how similar Edison was to Steve Jobs: both non-engineers that seemed to have enough technical intuition to facilitate an amazing amount of development within their organizations, all while taking (perhaps) more credit than they deserved and running their businesses in occasionally ruthless ways. Yet, somehow it's popular to want to emulate Steve Jobs and rant about how mean Edison was to Tesla.

sanderjd 11y ago
Anecdotally, it seems pretty consistent to me – people who scoff at Edison also scoff at Jobs, and people who want to emulate Jobs aren't those who scoff at Edison. But you certainly see both sides here.
joombaga 11y ago
Perhaps this is because there is no (obvious/singular) Tesla to Jobs' Edison.
- Aloha 11y ago
  Wozniak.
Aloha 11y ago
I'd actually say that Edison was an engineer, I'd also say that Jobs was a kind of engineer (more like a project engineer). Out of the two, Edison was closer to the traditional type however.
karmacondon 11y ago
I don't want to derail this thread due to a passing mention of Edison's name, but. Edison's major inventions represented a difference in kind, not in degree, that drastically changed things for humanity. Think of how different life is as the result of recorded sound, the concept of an electric company or light bulbs for home use. Job's products were often well designed incremental changes. Apple made computers consumer friendly, but they didn't invent the technology. They didn't invent the global telecommunications network that makes the iPhone useful either. Edison was an Inventor with a capital I. Jobs was a truly great corporate executive.
- sjm-lbm 11y ago
  For what it's worth, I completely agree with you. My comment wasn't really meant to directly compare the two's accomplishments or contributions, just to point out that a lot of the popular criticism of Edison is somewhat unfair and could be equally applied to figures that (at least in popular history) have been borderline deified.
  - Aloha 11y ago
    you hooked in to exactly why I pointed out edisons accomplishments.

by sjm-lbm 11y ago

sanderjd 11y ago

Anecdotally, it seems pretty consistent to me – people who scoff at Edison also scoff at Jobs, and people who want to emulate Jobs aren't those who scoff at Edison. But you certainly see both sides here.

joombaga 11y ago

Perhaps this is because there is no (obvious/singular) Tesla to Jobs' Edison.

Aloha 11y ago
Wozniak.

Aloha 11y ago

I'd actually say that Edison was an engineer, I'd also say that Jobs was a kind of engineer (more like a project engineer). Out of the two, Edison was closer to the traditional type however.

karmacondon 11y ago

I don't want to derail this thread due to a passing mention of Edison's name, but. Edison's major inventions represented a difference in kind, not in degree, that drastically changed things for humanity. Think of how different life is as the result of recorded sound, the concept of an electric company or light bulbs for home use. Job's products were often well designed incremental changes. Apple made computers consumer friendly, but they didn't invent the technology. They didn't invent the global telecommunications network that makes the iPhone useful either. Edison was an Inventor with a capital I. Jobs was a truly great corporate executive.

sjm-lbm 11y ago
For what it's worth, I completely agree with you. My comment wasn't really meant to directly compare the two's accomplishments or contributions, just to point out that a lot of the popular criticism of Edison is somewhat unfair and could be equally applied to figures that (at least in popular history) have been borderline deified.
- Aloha 11y ago
  you hooked in to exactly why I pointed out edisons accomplishments.