The term ‘invention’ is messy
Out of the following people, who do you credit an invention with?
- The one who thought of the idea first (“He thought of this years ago!”)
- The one who first published the idea first through a blog, book, article or educational paper (the idea is shared among a small group of like-minded people)
- The one who first made the idea into a workable prototype (building the first proof of concept to pitch to the Moneylenders like VCs)
- The one who figures out to mass-produce the product (manufacturing issues are highly under-rated and not covered by media a lot)
- The one who makes profit from the product (coming up with a business model to make the product accessible to the maximum number of users while making a profit)
- The one who media propagates as the inventor (journalistic license is taken for the sake of sticky storytelling)
- The one who affected people’s lives- in a good or a bad way, with the product (People love products that help them kick ass)
While there is no one person who can be given credit for an invention, but anyone who propels the invention to the next level can be assumed to be a valuable contributor.
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