4 ms·

I've adopted a personal rule about "invention," loosely based on the patent system. Claiming to have had an "idea" is not enough. Ideas are a dime a dozen. But

I've adopted a personal rule about "invention," loosely based on the patent system. Claiming to have had an "idea" is not enough. Ideas are a dime a dozen. But a patent requires a coherent description, novelty, and practicability. And disclosure. Reduction to practice is where I think the rubber meets the road. This is where you find out if someone actually understands the subject matter well enough to have invented something, and at least has discovered and overcome the major pitfalls. Plus the act of making something work really helps to clarify the idea and demonstrate non-obviousness. And if it can't be reduced to practice, then it's not an invention. There's nothing wrong with publishing an idea but leaving recognition for inventorship to someone else.

6510 1y ago
> Ideas are a dime a dozen. This is one of those statements that say more about the person not having ideas than about ideas. One could say it was an idea in it self so poor it should have vanished in the pile of crap never to be heard about by anyone - if only they had two or three more. History is full of accomplished people who thought everything was invented already. The truth is that we started rubbing sticks together two weeks ago. In the cosmic sense we don't even have a life span. Our average memory cant compete with a single sheet of a4 paper. It is a miracle we can find time to fit in an original thought in the cracks between earning a living, reproducing, eating, sleeping, house keeping, social interactions and personal hygiene. And then we have this preference for keeping things the way they are. Something new, however adventurous, really has to make an effort to overcome that one! I bet 99% gets debunked by the person having the thought. Patents are only interesting if what you are really looking for is money or fame. It's an inferior mind set compared to curiosity. You decide what counts, not the guy willing to give you a shiny dime for what could be that single awesome original thought you got to have in your life span but only after you share it. ha-ha The stuff people discovered is actually so bizarre that if you described it to people 100 years before it would sound utterly absurd. In the future our fellow apes will descend from the trees and rub sticks together? Then the other monkey looks at you from the corner of their eyes while tilting their head. Of course before that one of them had to come up with the idea to go live in trees! Imagine what bad idea that was. Or how about crawling onto the beach and living on land. The other fish must have been like, dude?!?! stop eating the pink sea weed!
cryptonector 1y ago
I remember "inventing" a tv watch when I was 5. Clearly that's not an invention. On the other hand coming up with the idea of the solid state transistor in the mid 1920s is not as useless an invention as my 5 year old self's invention of the tv watch. On the contrary, it was a brilliant idea. There is no doubt a longer story about why it didn't go anywhere then, and the fact that it didn't go anywhere tends to negate the claim to "invention", but that's semantics. The idea itself was world-changing. I'm sure Shockley, Brattain, and Bardeen were aware of this earlier work and would have found it inspiring because if there was any way to achieve solid state transistors... (Imagine how WWII would have gone had one of the major powers had solid state transistors.)
- peterfirefly 1y ago
  It was hard to build so it actually worked. It did work, though.
- analog31 1y ago
  One thing I recognize is that coming up with a novel and coherent theory of operation is worthy of recognition by itself. One example is that the ancient Greeks proved the theory of a parabolic mirror, even if they couldn't make one, and most people agree that it was a pretty cool achievement.

6510 1y ago

> Ideas are a dime a dozen. This is one of those statements that say more about the person not having ideas than about ideas. One could say it was an idea in it self so poor it should have vanished in the pile of crap never to be heard about by anyone - if only they had two or three more. History is full of accomplished people who thought everything was invented already. The truth is that we started rubbing sticks together two weeks ago. In the cosmic sense we don't even have a life span. Our average memory cant compete with a single sheet of a4 paper. It is a miracle we can find time to fit in an original thought in the cracks between earning a living, reproducing, eating, sleeping, house keeping, social interactions and personal hygiene. And then we have this preference for keeping things the way they are. Something new, however adventurous, really has to make an effort to overcome that one! I bet 99% gets debunked by the person having the thought. Patents are only interesting if what you are really looking for is money or fame. It's an inferior mind set compared to curiosity. You decide what counts, not the guy willing to give you a shiny dime for what could be that single awesome original thought you got to have in your life span but only after you share it. ha-ha The stuff people discovered is actually so bizarre that if you described it to people 100 years before it would sound utterly absurd. In the future our fellow apes will descend from the trees and rub sticks together? Then the other monkey looks at you from the corner of their eyes while tilting their head. Of course before that one of them had to come up with the idea to go live in trees! Imagine what bad idea that was. Or how about crawling onto the beach and living on land. The other fish must have been like, dude?!?! stop eating the pink sea weed!

cryptonector 1y ago

I remember "inventing" a tv watch when I was 5. Clearly that's not an invention. On the other hand coming up with the idea of the solid state transistor in the mid 1920s is not as useless an invention as my 5 year old self's invention of the tv watch. On the contrary, it was a brilliant idea. There is no doubt a longer story about why it didn't go anywhere then, and the fact that it didn't go anywhere tends to negate the claim to "invention", but that's semantics. The idea itself was world-changing. I'm sure Shockley, Brattain, and Bardeen were aware of this earlier work and would have found it inspiring because if there was any way to achieve solid state transistors... (Imagine how WWII would have gone had one of the major powers had solid state transistors.)

peterfirefly 1y ago
It was hard to build so it actually worked. It did work, though.
analog31 1y ago
One thing I recognize is that coming up with a novel and coherent theory of operation is worthy of recognition by itself. One example is that the ancient Greeks proved the theory of a parabolic mirror, even if they couldn't make one, and most people agree that it was a pretty cool achievement.