Headline Nov 03, 2015/ ''' INVENTORS..-..[IN]VA​LID '''

''' INVENTORS..-..[IN]VA​LID '''

IN PAKISTAN, -the first  ''temporary historic host''   of !WOW!, I went around 16 universities and colleges. And never did I meet one single student, professor, department,...Tinkering?

*One great way for  the  Developing World   to catchup with the Developed World would be for the  Developing World Students, to come up with great inventions?!*

INVENTORS are dreamers who try to realise their dreams: ''At some point, we're told to stop daydreaming  -but inventors never stop, and pay close attention to their dreams.''

That can mean being in tune with, and willing to explore, bizarre ideas taken directly from your dreams. Epstein describes a method used by Thomas Edison, who'd sit in a chair with ball bearings in his hand and try to nap. 

Soon, he would enter the  ''hypnagogic state,'' between wakefulness and sleep, when many people have visual and auditory hallucinations. 

When Edison was relaxed enough, the ball bearings would drop to the floor, waking him, and he'd start jotting down the ideas that had popped into his head while he was in that dreamlike state.

''Inventive people come up with all sorts of interesting connections that don't always seem logical, but now and then there are gems,'' says Epstein.

Mike Kelly sleeps with a pen by his bed and often wakes up with ideas that he then writes down. Some key revisions to the  Shaker Wiper Deicer, including how it attaches to the  windshield-wiper arm, came to him in his sleep. ''Thoughts will invade your subconscious,'' he says.

Ant creative person  -whether inventor, painter, author or other   -is a dreamer on a large sense, says physicist Willard Boyle. Your dreams must be grounded in reality [as in, that gizmo had better be workable], but you need an equal doze of faith-

Faith that society eventually will respond to you, whether that means buying your painting, reading your book or manufacturing your product. ''You always have to stay hopeful and positive,'' says Boyle.

5/They Aren't Easily Discouraged.

Inventing can be a solitary path, one that demands  '' intellectual self-confidence,''  says Jones-Gotman.

When Kelly had a crude prototype of the Shaker, he arranged meetings with five automotive-equipment manufacturers .

In one meeting, he recalls, a representative broke up laughing when he watched Kelly's presentation; ''That was such a motivator.''

But rejection is common. James Dyson decided to make the vacuum cleaner that now bears his name only after being turned down by the big vacuum manufacturers. It took  him five years  and  5127 prototypes.''You need the ability to persevere,'' he says.

Or, as Rob Walker puts it, one of the most important traits in any inventor is sheer tenacity. The SideTrack subway-ad technology had its genesis when Walker, Brad Caruk's partner, was working in marketing for an aerospace company.

Walker was riding the metro in Paris, looking out at the dark blank tunnel, and had an idea: ''If you could space a bunch of images on the wall and drive by them at the right speed, could you get the pictures to animate, like a child's flip book?''

Walker and Caruk recall their first  ''real world test.''  They printed 75 posters and attached them to stakes which they hammered into the ground beside a Winnipeg boulevard.

Driving along the road in a van, with the side door open and strobe lights flashing, they videoed the posters. When they checked the results, they had full motion video:  The concept worked.

It was exhilarating, a vindication  -and that's the feeling inventors cling to, Walker says. They easily could become discouraged, by assuming that if their idea is so good, someone else must have it; or by letting naysayers shoot them down.

To be s successful inventor, says Walker, remember the parable of the fleas in the jar : These fleas will start to jump, and will hit the jar lid. As time passes, they'll still jump, but not as high, knowing they can't escape.

Eventually you remove the lid, but the fleas still won't jump as high as possible. Although they could escape, they are trapped by their own sense of confinement.

''I'm not a flea in a jar,'' says Walker   -and neither is any other inventor who endures. That might be the keenest insight yet into the mind of the inventor.

''They don't put limitation on themselves, or let their surroundings  -or anyone else-  limit them. 

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the World. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Sheer Tenacity '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless