Recent comments in /f/GetMotivated

Lost_vob t1_j49n8yv wrote

Someone once said "Edison's greatest invention was the conception of the commercial lab." That's pretty accurate, though I think Bell had one himself too.

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Lost_vob t1_j49myo7 wrote

Well, it had to use AC. No one is worried about their toddlers shoving forks in battery ports, but wall sockets are a different story entirely.

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LiveFastDieFast t1_j49m0ji wrote

Yep. Action will almost always create motivation. Motivation out of nowhere is rare.

What helps too is breaking the task down into tiny steps, and convincing yourself to do just one tiny step. Once that’s complete, it’s easier to be motivated to do the next step and so on.

Example: let’s say you need to do the dishes. Convince yourself to wash just one plate. After all, one is better than none right? Once that’s done, your brain will be like “ well shit, my hands are already wet, sponge already has soap, might as well clean one more dish.” Next thing you know you’ve done all the dishes, and are motivated to go clean even more stuff

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jackinsomniac t1_j49ldwe wrote

What Edison did is create a huge "invention lab" with tons of new equipment, and a standing order to the library to automatically order any new books on science & technology, and have them delivered. It was state-of-the-art.

He created it for himself after some of his earlier inventions took off, and to invite other inventors to use it for free under one condition: Edison owns the rights to whatever you create with his lab, tools, & resources.

The thing is, if you're a programmer, engineer, architect, etc. this is 100% standard practice now: whatever you create on the company's time with company resources, the company owns. If that's "stealing", every single modern company does it today, and we don't even blink at it. Edison is mainly guilty of starting this practice.

He wasn't always that way either. He created his first invention as a teenager, and teamed up with a businessman to help him sell it. He didn't understand the paperwork, and unknowingly signed away all his rights to the new invention, and the businessman profited from his work while he got nothing. He swore that day, to never let it happen again. He realized the business angle of being an inventor is just as important.

He wasn't "just a thief". He was an inventor in his own right, and loved it. On his wedding night he didn't even go to bed to consummate the marriage, he returned to his shop to continue working. His own children regularly had to take his plate of dinner out to his shop, because he wouldn't sit down at the table to eat with his family. Sounds like a guy who actually loves the craft to me.

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Lost_vob t1_j49l3ql wrote

  1. Browning did rent room from Edison at the menlow park complex, he even did those infamous electrocutions Edison is often blamed for, but he didn't invent the chair. A dentist (whose name escapes me, southwick maybe) invented it. He even had a backstory on where he got the idea. Edison was hiring by the state of New York as a consultant to see if the chair was more humane than hanging.

  2. They listed 4 different guys as who Edison "stole" camera from. You know what they call it when you take several previous inventions and use them for newer or better tech?Inventing. Science doesn't happen in a vacuum. Everything invented is based off someone's previous work. Sometimes where historians choose to draw the line and say "this guy was the original" is arbitrary. Did apple steal the iPhone because they didn't invent the phone, PDAs, and touch screens?

  3. This is true, and it also gives credit to Edison. This is exactly what I said in 2?

  4. Back to 2 again. This is splitting hairs. He too something that played sound and added functionality for recording and playing back. That's pretty substantial. They term "record" is extremely vague and referencing a family of technology. If that term is what's being debated, then yeah, the you're not going to get an accurate answer.

  5. So... he manufactured and sold a product? How is this a mark against him? Most people didn't have electricity in the home, so he needed batteries to sell most of his products.

  6. What? Where is the argument where? It's just a summary of Edison history with x-ray.

  7. Ngl, I have never heard of this attribution. From a fast search, I don't see Edison himself taking credit for it. I see Edison finding from new uses for it and other people giving him credit.

  8. Edison even took credit for DC. The whole "Edison made DC, Tesla made AC" thing is bogus. Neither made neither people made the currents before them, and their specific Inventions I'm this category are both technological dead ends. "The war of the Currents" wasn't between Edison and Tesla or even Edison and Westinghouse. It was between Pulitzer and Hearst. The "Which current is better and safer" debate was taking place in every lab and university and work shop around the globe. But not every lab and university and work shop was in reach of the circulation wars. The "war" was a sensational story, for the tech guys it was Business as usual.

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