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Murder of Wilbur Wright
- starwind 5y agoI don't like this. The Wright Brothers patents were _extremely_ broad and they aggressively pursued anyone they thought infringed on their patents. Most aircraft development moved to Europe, which is why we use the terms "empennage," "aileron", and "fuselage." If Wilbur died thinking he wasted his engineering talent, he should have spent more time engineering and less time litigating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoMurder? Wasting his time dealing with business matters instead of technical ones is... murder? I despise the... the use-of-the-most-extreme-word-possible-for-more-mundane-things-to-try-to-make-some-point-more-forcefully. (Sorry, I don't have a word or a concise phrase for this.) But hey, it could be worse. The article doesn't say he was tortured. It doesn't call it terrorism.
- onecommentman 5y agoThe thesis seems to be that brilliant contributors often get dragged down in the mundane after their initial contributions. And that makes the author sad. I look at things differently. We have about 8B people on this big blue marble. Let’s say one in a hundred have what it takes to make a significant contribution to their time and place. So that leaves us with 80M folks who, in some sense, deserve to make a big contribution. So you get on the contribution carousel and get to grab the brass ring. Let’s say you actually grabbed the brass ring. Money, fame, maybe even personal satisfaction and actual contribution to the long-term happiness of others. Look behind you, the line waiting their turn is really long. Get off the merry-go-round and give the other kids a chance. There are a lot of them. Go eat some cotton candy. Maybe even sell your ring, build another carousel and give even more kids a chance.