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People complain that Edison wasn't the first to invent pretty much anything that his name is synonymous with And HE DIDN'T! But that's ok He didn't view himself was one who invented. We have a word for people like him now: technical entrepreneur And he was the best ever (1/3)
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Thomas Edison, fraud? Far from it. His genius may not have been for pure invention, says @eric_is_weird, but for something equally important – building the environment needed for innovation and bringing good ideas to market. worksinprogress.co/issue/thomas-e
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He took tech that barely worked and made it useful He took products to market at prices people were willing to pay He made things that could be manufactured at scale He hit deadlines He built systems with others' inventions that the original inventors didn't dream of (2/3)
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So no, he was not an inventor. He was something even better Also, tragically, I don't think the modern US could make use of someone of Edison's talents. Check out the piece to learn how Edison did what he did and why a modern-day Edison might be wasted on today's US (3/3)
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In Tom Hughes’s lingo, Edison was a “system builder” who assembled lots of preexisting parts together in service of a wider system goal.
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