Absolutely. Very sketchy to try to draw any meaningful conclusions from this data. Also, what about the people who invent/innovate on a smaller scale, which do

Absolutely. Very sketchy to try to draw any meaningful conclusions from this data. Also, what about the people who invent/innovate on a smaller scale, which doesn't get recognized as much as these inventions but is in aggregate perhaps as significant? This analysis sort of rings bells of the "Great Man" theory of history.