Quirky

What can we learn when looking at inventors that made multiple contributions to society? Quirky provides sketches of some significant inventors. This is interesting. However, the authors also try to draw some conclusions and generalizations. These are rather unsatisfying. (In one case, she even mentions that serial inventors get less sleep. Great! We all just need to sleep less and then we will be more creative.

The book provides short bios of Einstein, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Marie Curie, Edison and others. They all made multiple significant inventions. They each had a number of quirks. Most did not follow the standard education pattern. Edison had almost no formal education. Jobs dropped out of college. However, what they lacked in education, they made up for in a desire to learn. They were also dedicated to their craft. They would rather create than work a regular job. They also seemed to fail in the people department.

Being in the right place and the right time was also important. Had Steve Jobs been raised in Wisconsin, he would have likely never been exposed to Silicon Valley technology and would be a total unknown today. The chaos in Germany made life difficult for Einstein, and inadvertently allowed him to shine. The inventors oten had a strong attitude that they could succeed at what they were doing. I'm sure there are many people with similar attitudes that are lost to history. They just were not at the right place for their innovation to spread to the world.

Is there anything we can learn from these inventors? Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that we should not be regimented into the system. Those that are most innovative often do things their own way. But aren't these also the biggest troublemakers? How do you distinguish between the two?