The 'Lightbulb Moment' Is Innovation's Most Misleading Meme

  • 📰 PsychToday
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 45 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 21%
  • Publisher: 51%

Technology Technology Headlines News

Technology Technology Latest News,Technology Technology Headlines

What's the actual story behind the ubiquitous meme of the lightbulb moment?

—I took them out. I’ve created nothing. Nobody does. There’s no such thing as an idea being brain-born; everything comes from the outside. The industrious one coaxes it from the environment.”

Actually, a different cartoon character—Professor Grampy—seems to have been the source of the lightbulb moment. In ten animated shorts produced from 1935 to 1937 by Max Fleischer Studios, the spry gadgeteer frequently came to the aid of"Jazz Baby" Betty Boop. Grampy did so by jury-rigging several shrewd solutions to a series of thorny problems.

But, wait! Didn’t Edison disavow"brain-born ideas" as responsible for his inventions? And didn’t he emphasize perspiration over inspiration in the creative process? But I suspect that Edison would have taken a decidedly dim view of these cartoonish portrayals of innovation, although he would have been quite pleased with the audio and video quality of the films themselves. After all, Edison paved the way for motion pictures of this caliber with his own invention of the Kinetophone and the Kinetoscope.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 714. in TECHNOLOGY

Technology Technology Latest News, Technology Technology Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Council Post: Embracing The AI Robotic Revolution: Balancing Innovation, Workforce And EthicsSociety must maximize the benefits of this technology while minimizing challenges.
Source: ForbesTech - 🏆 318. / 59 Read more »

Democrats' drug pricing scheme would stifle medical innovationThe ink has barely dried on the Inflation Reduction Act, but certain misguided Democrats already want to up the ante on drug price controls.
Source: dcexaminer - 🏆 6. / 94 Read more »

How the Science of Choice Can Boost InnovationEver since the late 1990s, social psychologists have known a surprising truth: If you want to maximize someone’s satisfaction with a choice, don’t give them unlimited options. Instead, you should give them some choice but with clear constraints. This added structure is crucial for picking a desired option with confidence. This research also translates to innovation, which often results from 1) identifying a big problem to solve; 2) breaking it down into sub-problems; 3) identifying how those subproblems had been previously solved; and 4) combining the subproblem solutions in a unique and novel way. This process, which the author calls “choice mapping,” adds helpful constraints to your process.
Source: HarvardBiz - 🏆 310. / 63 Read more »

These Housing Industry Partnerships Pave A Path To InnovationCollaboration across stakeholders in housing fosters creativity, bold ideas and momentum to bring them to scale.
Source: ForbesTech - 🏆 318. / 59 Read more »

Melbourne’s AI and Web3 hackfest defies perceived drop in Australian innovationAs far as innovation goes, Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world — but you wouldn’t know it if you went to the AI and Web3 Hackfest in Melbourne over the weekend
Source: Cointelegraph - 🏆 562. / 51 Read more »

Central bank efforts to curb inflation could impact long-term innovation, research showsEfforts by central banks to counter inflation by raising interest rates and tempering consumer demand for goods and services might hinder investments in transformative technologies.
Source: FoxNews - 🏆 9. / 87 Read more »