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Thursday, December 09, 2004

Invention

If necessity is the mother of invention, what is the father?

15 Comments:

Anonymous said...

THE FATHER OF INVENTION:


The sad but true nature of this question is that Necessity, bless her heart, has spent quality time with countless potential paters of baby Invention. There was that lost weekend in Amsterdam with Creativity and the high school fling with Curiosity. Then there was Greed, Vision and Diligence, all of them realistic possibilities. To say nothing of Scarcity and Inspiration. Is there anyone, including Necessity herself, who can say for sure where paternity truly lies.

What we can say is that, regardless of the source, the world is so much better off with Invention than without her. Let’s be generous here. Who among us has not strayed from society’s preferred path? In any case, here’s to Mom, Dad and the Kid.

Personally, my money’s on Curiosity.

9:47 AM, December 10, 2004  
Andy Driscoll said...

Well, creativity of course. Andy

8:55 PM, December 11, 2004  
Evelyn in UK said...

In answer to the question 'Who is the father of invention?' I think it is Boredom. Boredom is often around courting a lot of people and it is then that Boredom becomes a little more active and little fingers start to play with inane objects which then leads to the patter of tiny inventions which could feasibly save the world from destruction. Sadly, father Boredom is so distracted from what he is doing, focusing solely on being Bored, that all the baby inventions scamper round and are soon lost from the sight and gone forever!

Maybe if we got an infinite number of father Boredoms and an infinite number of inane objects and put them in a room......?
:-)

5:22 AM, December 14, 2004  
deejay-jr said...

If Necessity is the Mother of Invention, Play is the Father. Think of puttering around in your workshop, experimenting with new materials... Drawing upon a 'junque' pile ( as referred to by Ms. Necessity)...

The thesaurus refers to play thusly:
Entry: play
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: have fun
Synonyms: amuse oneself, caper, carouse, carry on, cavort, clown, cut capers, cut up, dally, dance, disport, divert, entertain, entertain oneself, frisk, frolic, gambol, horse around, idle away, joke, jump, kibitz, let go, let loose, make merry, mess around, rejoice, revel, romp, show off, skip, sport, toy, trifle
Source: Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.1.1)
Copyright © 2004 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

All of these allow each of us the ability to see the world from our own childlike perspective - not as in how things are but how they may be. I present the toddler playing in the box a Christmas toy came in. This is an example of play turning what parents may see as a simple cardboard box into a race car, a playhouse or a rocket ship.

Play and Necessity are a blessed creative pair.

8:09 AM, December 14, 2004  
Don The Idea Guy said...

Although "Boredom" was quite good, and gave me a reason to second-guess my own response, I believe the father of invention is "Dissatisfaction."

Dissatisfaction with the way things currently exist, the way something is processed, executed, or manufactured leads to all sorts of "what if we did *this*..." questions.

Take a gruff-but-lovable 'Dissatisfaction' with the status quo, and combine it with a great dame (and quite the hottie!) like the 'Neccessity' to make an improvement on the situation, and you get a bouncing baby Invention!

2:54 PM, December 29, 2004  
Anonymous said...

I think it must be "oneupsmanship"!

9:04 AM, January 06, 2005  
Anonymous said...

CURIOSITY = Curiosity, our inherent desire to know and to learn, is Invention’s father. Curiosity imparts our impulse to explore and to tinker—to ask what’s on the other side of each field or ocean. From curiosity, we imprint the verve to march into the unknown and to know that something of great value will be found there. We owe to curiosity all of our great social and cultural achievements, including our transportation sources, space flight, medical and social advances (even civil rights).
Well-tended curiosity has an invincible power: to generate truth, to move beyond perceived limits, and yes, to create marvels from what was once just a necessity.

1:57 PM, January 13, 2005  
ed B said...

Sorry but I disagree with everyone.
The father of invention is understood knowledge. What's that mean? Inventing is a learned skill at the common level. I can and did invent on demand. I considered myself "an answer looking for a problem" My limitation is Knowledge that doesn't exist yet. There are things that we don't know about which will advance human existance beneficially. These will appear as the result of discovery rather than some planned effort. So therefore the father of invention could be described as knowledge discovery? And that is a new thought! Ed

11:23 PM, February 25, 2005  
John's Ideas and Creativity said...

In his book "A Whack on the Side of the Head" Roger Von Oech

http://www.creativethink.com/

Asserts that PLAY is the father of invention. I would agree with that, as that attitude encompasses the deferral of judgement (the silencing of the inner critic) and the provocations of de Bono's lateral thinking.

This is an interesting blog. You may be interested in my creativity blog..

http://johnideas.blogspot.com/

I'm particularly hoping to get feedback on some creativity techniques I've devised.

3:20 AM, March 06, 2005  
xperienceblog said...

"Necessity is the mother of all inventions, but Patent Right is the father"


-Josh Billings

10:57 PM, June 15, 2005  
2creative said...

I think necessity is the mother, creativity is the father and dissatisfaction, boredom and play are their 3 sons.

Congratulations for your blog !!
and i invite you guys to visit mine:

http://creativitysource.blogspot.com/

I hope to hear from you soon.

1:57 PM, June 21, 2005  
Keith said...

Focus is the father of invention if necesity is the mother. Each time they come together, they create offspring which are the various solutions to any necesity.

1:51 AM, August 08, 2005  
The World According to James said...

DOMINATION is most likely the father of invention. Perfect examples are war, free enterprise, and the race for space and the moon.

8:41 AM, October 04, 2005  
Hernando Mejia said...

Richard Frank, (1658)wrote: "Art Imitates Nature, Necesity is mother of invention" Following with Josh that said "Curiosity is thier father, dissatisfaction, boredom and play are their three sons" and I finish:"Copyrights and Patents are their bodyguards"
Hernando Mejia

8:46 PM, October 28, 2005  
Dmitry said...

Focus is the father of invention if necesity is the mother.
Well, creativity of course!!

4:25 AM, March 23, 2007  

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