The West has always indulged somewhat in this form of celeb culture, now rendered absurd with actual celebrity culture, along with startup and political deity w

The West has always indulged somewhat in this form of celeb culture, now rendered absurd with actual celebrity culture, along with startup and political deity worship. It partly ties in with the insistence of knowing so many simple facts for exams of yore who, what, where, when and not so much of why. With the Columbus myth I always thought the best part of the tale was not his supposed discovery, but his ongoing insistence for years that he had not found America, but Asia by another route. Which is presumably why America was named for Amerigo Vespucci. Though I thought the Viking and Asians getting there first was fairly well known now? As for Edison's patent mill, well who knows how many of "his" inventions were from one of his many utterly forgotten researchers. Unlike Newton, he made no mention of seeing further by standing on the shoulders of giants. Mind you, that famous Newtonian quote wasn't, it's much older - it may have been parallel invention as he thought it a cute phrase. TL;DR the whole patent system is broken, and we should be far more aware of the sweep of history than the individuals. :)