“My recent post refuting the canard-y contention that Steve Jobs didn’t really invent anything drew some passionate and insightful comments from readers that are well worth sharing,” Bob Evans writes for Forbes.
“Quick review: on the web site AllThingsD.com, Erik Hesseldahl has an article about an interview he conducted with tech-industry pundit Mark Anderson about the latter’s 10 big predictions for 2012,” Evans recounts. “In the course of that interview, Anderson at one point says, ‘Steve Jobs didn’t really invent anything at all. But he was great at integrating things into a product.'”
“My reaction to that can be conveyed in a paraphrase of a Charles Dickens line: if that’s the definition of “invent,” then that definition is a ass,” Evans writes. “A number of readers agreed with my disagreement… Reader ‘toyboat’ went far back into the annals of creativity to offer this anecdote about the fuzzy line Anderson was trying to straddle: ‘By logical extension, the person who invented the first lever was just integrating rocks and trees that were already there!'”
Much more, including Da Vinci and Edison, in the full article here.
Related article:
‘Steve Jobs didn’t really invent anything.’ Really? – December 12, 2011