I’m willing to go out on a limb and make a prediction today that I pledge to stand by: Tomorrow’s prognosticators will be just as wrong as today’s prognosticators. With apologies to Nostradamus adherents, if history has taught us anything, it’s that those who attempt to predict the future always get it wrong. I bring […]
A friend keeps Evernote handy on all of his mobile devices and computers. He has a list entitled “Ideas” where he captures new product or service concepts and inventions. Maybe a better place to direct some of those brainstorms is Quirky. Quirky is an amalgamation of ideas, inventions, development, marketing, venture capital and democracy. In […]
Serendipitous failures……..At first the two words don’t seem to be natural partners. But in the history of inventions, they occasionally play together quite nicely. As we gather on March 6 to celebrate the 72nd birthday of the invention of Silly Putty, I’m reminded of how sometimes when things go wrong, they can actually be going […]
It was January 24, 1984 when Steve Jobs introduced the Macintosh to the world. According to a report from CNET, Jobs noted upon the new technology’s unveiling that “Apple is perceived to be the only hope to offer IBM a run for its money.” And that it did. Little did we know just a few […]
It was January 1957, when an accidental entrepreneur, Walter Fredrick Morrison (“Fred”), sold the rights for the Pluto Platter (later known as the Frisbee) to the Wham-O toy company. (The name may have come from the Frisbie Baking Company.) As legend has it, Fred and his girlfriend were tossing a popcorn lid back and forth […]