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jackinsomniac t1_j2251am wrote

Reply to comment by Sandpaper_Pants in Take a chance on yourself [image] by Blue_Consulting

I know Edison gets a lot of (rightful) hate, but he was still an inventor thru-and-thru. People tend to forget that when they jump on the Edison hate-train.

For one, Edison, Tesla, Alexander Bell etc. were all born around the same time because it was peak industrial age, and everybody knew a bunch of wild inventions that had never existed before were now possible.

Edison created his first invention as a teenager, and met up with a businessman who promised to make it possible for him, and a lot of money. The businessman stole the patent for his invention & solely profited off it. Edison learned a lesson VERY early on: the business & legal side of being an inventor is very important.

That's where he got his early business-savvy from. A harsh lesson at his own expense. He vowed to never let it happen again. So when his other inventions started to take off, affording him the ability to create a massive inventors' shop, with a standing order to the library to automatically buy any new books on science or technology and add them to their shelves, it was with one caveat: Edison will own any invention you create with the resources in his shop.

He was still an inventor tho, those crazy stories about chasing the right filament for a lightbulb are true. On his wedding night, he didn't even go to bed to consummate the marriage; he returned to his shop instead. His own children would regularly need to take a plate of dinner to him in his shop because he was "too busy" to sit down at the table with them.

When Nikola Tesla had the tragedy with his shop, Edison carved out a whole corner of his shop for Tesla to exclusively work in... given he agreed to the same standards as all of Edison's other engineers, "he owns everything you create."

Sadly, Edison did start this trend in modern industry: no matter if you're an engineer or a programmer, your employer owns your work. But he was still an inventor. Still did it for the love. And the fact he only started his nasty policies AFTER being screwed over by others the same way, to me affords him at least a little sympathy.

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Sandpaper_Pants t1_j23uh66 wrote

Sorry. My intent wasn't to emphasize that Edison had unlikable characteristics. It was to point out that I'm seriously doubting that this quote is even his. I'd like a source.

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jackinsomniac t1_j26km4u wrote

It's cool, this comment was more in general to everyone, not specifically aimed at you.

I know how it is, in school you get taught about how he's an awesome inventor, but nothing about the bad stuff he did. School focuses all on the lightbulb story, but never mentions the electrocuted elephant. So later in life when people learn about the horrible stuff Edison did, it's like they flip 100% to the opposite side. "It's ALL lies, he NEVER did anything of note! He's just a lying, cheating, stealer!"

But that 180 deg turn in attitude towards Edison isn't completely accurate either. That's all I want to remind people of. Yes, you weren't told the whole truth, but that doesn't invalidate the other facts of his story either. Dude didn't even go to bed with his wife on his wedding night, he HAD to go continue work in his shop instead. That's not something a greedy hedonist does, that's the sign of an overly dedicated man. He's no saint, but he isn't some greedy businessman either, who couldn't care less about inventions. He loved inventing.

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