Tesla and Edison: Two Paths to Success

,: 2023

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Let's begin with Nikola Tesla, who, many will agree, embodies some of the world's fondest ideas of what it means to be an innovator. While many prominent figures from ancient history were certainly polymaths and had a wide range of interests, this could partly be explained by the fact that men of a certain class invariably did enjoy varied classical educations, and that it was not uncommon to expect such a gentleman to dabble in everything from art to politics to medicine. However, true polymorphy is less and less common in the modern world as it becomes more complex. Tesla bucks the trend for specialism, though, and was known throughout his life for being interested in many areas, and a prolific and successful inventor. With over 300 patents to his name. His most well known contribution to science is his Design of the Alternating Current Electricity System, or AC. Electricity for short. Edison a teacher and rival.

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n, who was granted a whopping: 1093

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first light bulb in the late: 1870

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d much lauded World's Fair in: 1893

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with a friend in Budapest in: 1881

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Several years later, the vision became a reality. Now, this isn't to say that poetry itself allowed Tesla to access some new understanding within himself, rather, by using a completely different part of his brain. The recital of poetry seemed to enable Tesla's unconscious mind to relax and foment its own ideas. You've probably experienced this yourself whenever you suddenly have a really bright idea while taking a shower in the morning. Of course, diligent and focused effort are needed to bring visions to life. But sometimes we can invite those novel solutions by having an agility of mind and a willingness to switch modes. Whether we do this by engaging with art, music, poetry, or spending time in nature, bach is reported to have composed many of his greatest works after being inspired by listening to birds is up to us. Changing perspectives this way allows for novel insights and fresh takes on old problems.

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Creativity stagnates when ideas don't move or when we get trapped in one fixed way of working through a problem. We can take a page out of Tesla's book by making liberal use of daydreaming imaginative visualization and simply taking plenty of freeform walks and breaks to let our unconscious mind do its thing. Step out of your comfort zone when you're stumped on a math problem. Give it a rest and spend the evening at a salsa class instead. For example, you may be surprised to find you have fresh eyes when you return to your work. Work hard on a project, but then set it aside for a while and flex another part of your brain. Do a strenuous workout or pick up a paintbrush. Being a jack of all trades means dabbling in many different areas.

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But for the purposes of this chapter, we can also think of it as being willing to switch things up often, to be creative, and to play fast and loose with the rules. In this sense, thinking like a genius may mean taking creative breaks from thinking altogether. Mental resources can get depleted, and our cognitive abilities can tire with effort just as surely as our muscles do when we exert ourselves physically. When we take strategic breaks and rest, however, we give ourselves the time to not only recuperate our mental faculties, but solidify memories and new concepts in our mind so that we grasp and learn them more thoroughly. Though there's a lot we can learn from Tesla regarding innovative thinking, persistence, and productivity, one less appreciated lesson is that flashes of insight often take place in those moments between bouts of energetic study during sleep and dreams, or in those quiet breaks we take to deliberately let go of effort and let our unconscious mind take charge. If we remember to entertain a diverse set of interests, read widely, and have plenty of different hobbies, including nonceerebral ones, we give ourselves more opportunity to access other ways of thinking, ways that might hold the secret to our next big insight. Edison's lesson pursue goals incrementally. What about edison.

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If Tesla can teach us the power of switching tasks and taking breaks, what can Edison teach us? You might have wondered if there was a lesson in the fact that Edison, for all his genius, failed to see the value in his young protege's ideas about AC Current, and thus missed his chance to get involved with the next big thing. From its inception, geniuses are still human, and it might be that Edison's ego got in the way of him admitting that there was a better way. Though Edison might have lacked in humility and intellectual honesty in this case, he certainly excelled in other genius traits we've identified, particularly in hard work and diligence over many years. It's true that Edison was an inventor, but it might be more realistic to say that novelty and innovation only played a small part in his work. He didn't invent the light bulb, but rather perfected it, and he did so in a methodical, persistent way, going back to the drawing board again and again until he had fine tuned the design after many iterations. Edison was also a businessman and was keenly involved in the manufacture and marketing of his inventions, not just their creation and design. While Tesla might have had flashes of insights while walking in the woods reciting poetry, edison's approach was more slow and steady.

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He invented so many things because each innovation suggested a slightly different one. The phonograph, something to record sound gave him the idea for a motion picture camera, something to record images, and so on. This slow and plotting progress made by gradually improving on the previous step, is something that seems trifling day to day, but the successes add up quickly. However, we can imagine that it's also what made it difficult for Edison to make the big conceptual leap from DC to AC, whereas it was more natural for Tesla to do so. Genius can advance and discover by eureka moments and flashes of insight, or it can creep along with gradual manipulations and tweaks on the same project banking progress as you go. Alex Osborne, a thinker considered the father of brainstorming, was interested in this idea of small, cumulative manipulations of a subject and described methods that may well have been used by Edison without him knowing it. A popular technique is called scamper. A mnemonic encapsulating the seven different ways we can manipulate and handle data.

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If we hope to achieve even a fraction of the impressive success Edison found in his lifetime, we might do so by deliberately following this scamper technique. The mnemonic is as follows s substitute C combine A adapt M magnify or modify p put to other use. E eliminate R rearrange or reverse. Let's see how we can apply these manipulations to a topic productively, to generate new ideas and solutions, or simply to gradually improve on what already exists. Edison worked primarily with practical inventions and tools, but we can apply the same ways of thinking to more abstract ideas too. Imagine you're launching a catering business and are just starting out with gathering new customers and refining your recipes. You might look at the menu you've devised for an event and ask, can you substitute something? Perhaps there's an ingredient that is cheaper, more flavorful, or easier to get a hold of.

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Can you combine what you have with something else? Maybe you can invest in some beautiful crockery and have an arm of the business that rents it out too. Or maybe you have a friend who is a master calligrapher so you can offer handwritten menus as another service. Can you adapt something to your subject? You already have a small garden at the back of your house. Can you plant herbs there instead so you can save on buying these? Can you magnify anything to good effect? If you have one specialty, maybe you want to focus on that more, such as specializing in unique desserts.

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Can you modify anything? Maybe you can offer your customers some kind of meal that's hard to find elsewhere, such as catering to special diets. Can you put things to another use? Maybe the web domain you've already bought for another project can be reworked to make a website for your catering business. Can you eliminate something? Maybe you find it challenging and expensive to cater alcohol, so you decide to simply eliminate that from your menus entirely and spare yourself the trouble. Can you rearrange things? Maybe you notice that the online ordering process with clients is getting confusing, so you work on streamlining it, reordering the steps they go through to enlist your services.

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What happens when you reverse things? You might wonder, after being in the business for a while, if you might make more profit by approaching the industry from an entirely new perspective. I e becoming a food wholesaler who sells two caterers. Maybe you would enjoy event management more when you can subcontract caterers without having to do the work yourself. This catering example is merely to illustrate that we can always improve on things, even if the improvements seem small in the moment. Edison was famous for taking the art of trial and error to its extreme and was known to literally try out hundreds of subtly different designs of his various inventions. Rather than generating some brand new idea from scratch, edison found his way to create new ideas step by step, by modifying what already existed. Sometimes you might encounter people like this in your own life.

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When asked how they landed in their successful fields, they tell you how they actually began on an entirely different path, but by degrees wound up somewhere else entirely through dozens of smaller steps contrasting genius. Edison was prolific. Tesla was innovative. Edison displayed amazing work ethic and determination over decades. Tesla had audacity and the drive to pursue something new and different. Both men, however, shared a passion for challenging convention, and they both had a wide and diverse set of interests. Both were non conventional polymaths, tesla driven by curiosity, and Edison by the desire to constantly improve. We cannot imagine either of these great thinkers achieving what they did without these genius traits.

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From Tesla, we can learn to push and promote ourselves, even when we conflict with our superiors. Tesla left his employment under Edison because he wanted to grow. How many of us are content to stay put where we are, as long as it's safe and comfortable? Tesla, however, kept going. In his own way, Edison showed the same tendency, and rather than settle with a good enough invention that more or less did the trick, he kept on improving it, not content until his inventions dominated the market and were sold everywhere. Though few of us will match the achievements of these two titans of innovation and industry, we can certainly follow their lead in many areas. Even when something is working, can we find a way to make it even better? If we're stuck, can we take a step back and pause for a moment to allow a completely fresh idea to emerge?

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Do we have a rich variety of interests and skills, and are we constantly drawing on them as a resource? If you allow yourself to be inspired by Edison and Tesla, use the Scamper technique often, and engage freely in many different interests, including rest, then you'll naturally find yourself a jack of all trades. Whether you favor Edison's approach or Tesla's, the overall lesson is that success belongs to those who are willing to pursue their own path with self discipline, persistence and variety. Once again is from Peter Holland's book Think Like a Genius how to Go Outside the Box analyze deeply creatively, solve problems and innovate. Check it out on Audible and Amazon music fans may be a little confused today as Dolly Pardon is getting ready. To release her first rock album. This features collaborations with Paul McCartney, Elton John, and maybe to break the generation gap there Lizzo. And if you haven't had your fill of AI news yet, Wendy's is going to partner with Google to pilot an AIpowered chat bot to run its drive through services.

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Couldn't be any worse than what it is now, right? Let's recap the takeaways from today's episode. Edison's genius traits included diverse interests, non conventional thinking, hard work, and self discipline. Tesla's traits included curiosity, non conventional thinking, and intellectual honesty. Edison and Tesla were two inventors engaged in the so called current wars of. The late 18 hundreds. Tesla was an employee of Edison's, but became his rival when he took new ideas to a competitor, George Westinghouse, and found success there while Edison had dominated the market with his DC powered systems, eventually the war was won by Tesla and the new AC electricity. Edison was a prolific and productive inventor who also manufactured and marketed his products across the country.

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nd he eventually amassed over: 1000

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Secondly, we can use the Scamper technique to manipulate our subject and arrive at new ideas and solutions step by step. Scamper stands for substitute, combine, adapt, magnify or modify, put to other use, eliminate and rearrange or reverse. Once again, thanks for joining us. Let's take a look at today's birthday list and we'll be out for today Rising. Urban Latino Artist arlene MC Dancer, model, entrepreneur and reality TV star. Black China. Little more than flash in the pan. Football star cam Newton, the musician prince Royce and Sabrina Carpenter.

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Today, Nelson Mandela in: 1994