Ok, I think I get it... mostly. I'm reading a book about rockets right now ("Ignition"). It actually contains many funny stories about inventions and dead ends

Ok, I think I get it... mostly. I'm reading a book about rockets right now ("Ignition"). It actually contains many funny stories about inventions and dead ends; how some substance seemed very promising, but then it turned out it corrodes steel very slowly; or how they abandoned a better fuel for a slightly worse one that was more practical (e.g. wouldn't freeze in the winter). I guess in general, we only hear/see the success stories, i.e. technology that is better, and could be put into production and scaled. As a software developer I might be a bit blind to that ;)