Is Steve Jobs the 2nd Greatest Innovator of All Time?

[XandNobody]

WAIT A SECOND! Wait, wait, wait, Thomas Edison? Thomas Motherf***ing Edison, still has first God**** place? Still? This kills the importance of Jobs position. Seriously, this is like comparing Gandhi to God**** Stalin. Jobs was this era's Tesla, not Edison, you d*** ****ing idiots.

 

[IndianaJonny]

That's a noble goal, but I don't think you need to tout Steve Jobs to make it a reality. He was a great CEO, don't get me wrong, a great leader, but he didn't invent anything. Jobs organized people to invent things for him, which is not exactly what you want to use as an example to young people to encourage them to be innovators themselves.

Then appreciate the criteria difference between an inventor and an innovator [//www.technologyreview.com/business/13595/]. MIT's own Michael Schrage puts it like this:

"invention has nothing to do with commercial success - whereas innovation has everything to do with it"

A lot of folks are bemoning the fact this survey seems to indicate people think Steve Jobs invented lots of things (Even Roach's article is clumsy in its use of the two terms). Calm down, by MIT's criteria, it's more akin to saying "he had a lot of business savvy" than "he made lots of things".

For example: Henry Ford, Innovator. Da Vinci, Inventor.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Let me say it this way... that list is complete bullshit.

The one, most important innovator for today's technology is Nikola Telsa. Ya know, the one who "invented" electricity? The one who made the foundation for computers, wireless electricity and signal transmission? The one who turned the night into day?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
He made a light bulb that wouldn't fail unless you destroy it with force.
Unlike those of Thomas Edison which worked for several hours at best.

Just follow that damn link and read about this genius. He was far before his time and Edison was a monkey compared to him.


Secondly, Steve Jobs is as innovative as an ape.
He didn't innovate anything. He took existing technology, packed it into white (sometimes black) shiny plastic and sold it for 3 times the worth of the technology.

Mark Zuckerberg? Really? Because social networks didn't exist before him?

Thomas Edison as first? don't make me laugh. That guy bought half the stuff as patents and people consider him an innovator. He didn't create nor think of anything. He bought patents. Well, he did innovate, but not even close to what he gets credit for.

What the fuck is Amelia Earhart doing on that list?

 

[spacecookie]

Nope. Nick Tesla.

Why does Tesla get no love? His ideas and inventions were way ahead of their time and better than anything Edison made in his life.

VOTE TESLA!

 

[Melon Hunter]

OK, that's just depressing. The winner is a thief who stole everything from Tesla and invented the goddamned electric chair as a marketing device. If this is for the greatest innovator of all time, why not Alan Turing or Tim Berners-Lee? I'd say what they did ranks far, far higher than making an overpriced mp3 player.

Agreed. Edison was an absolute scumbag and intellectual thief. Practically everything he 'invented' was stolen or copied from someone else. I suppose you could call him an innovator on how inventive he was in crushing any competition, which was usually superior to his own stuff anyway. I studied early music recordings for a project a couple of years ago, and it amazed me how long Edison held on with his phonographs, long after the superior record players were produced.

As for more deserving winners, there are too many to mention. Turing's definitely on there, though. I'd also say Frank Whittle for the invention of the jet engine.

 

[RA92]

First place goes to the patent troll who spent his life sabotaging Tesla's work and trying to convince the public A.C. is dangerous! Second place goes to a marketing man!

Oh, US.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Bill Gates innovated more than Steve Jobs.

And he's not even on a good top 100.

The problem with these polls, and with polls in general, is that the open endedness allows them to be riddled with what education you can pull out on what day.

What about John Logie Baird? Christopher Cockerell? Hero of Alexandria? Edwin Land? Jerome Lemelson? Adam Smith? Achimedes? Al Gore? Gerry Anderson? Ellen Ochoa? Robert Oppenheimer?

Before you even mention Charles Babbage and Alan Turing.

[sub]Karl Benz, Clarence Birdseye, Louis Braille, Louis Pasteur...[/sub]

Quick Quiz: Who's the second most prolific patenter after Edison? (They're mentioned above)

 

[Irridium]

Thomas Edison was a crank and completely screwed over Tesla, a much better man who would have made the world a much better place.

Tesla wanted to give everyone FREE energy. Edison wanted to charge for it, so he smeared the shit out of Tesla's name. This isn't even touching on all the ideas Tesla had, and could've probably done had he not been screwed by Edison.

Fuck Edison.

This is the second:

This is what I thought of:

Spoiler

Also, to the creator of the survey, if you don't want people to bring up innovators from the past, say "best modern innovator" and not "best innovator of ALL TIME".

 

[scyther250]

It's deplorable that Tesla isn't on that list.

 

[Voodoomancer]

I came here to Speak my mind, but everyone else spoke the words for me. That is not a list of innovators, that is a list of pop figures and people who happened to get to the patent office first.

 

[Zen Toombs]

Well, I'm already on the Telsa bandwagon. So there's that.

Slightly more on topic: Zuckerberg? Really?

 

[soren7550]

All this talk about Edison screwing over Tesla reminds me of this:

 

[newwiseman]

Considering that Nikola Tesla isn't even on that list I'll call it a hack job and a shame. The most well know doesn't not equal best.

Considering that statistically a large portion of that 16-25 year age group can't find the US on a map I don't consider them qualified to say who is the greatest inventor.

Edit* Lets not forget George Washington Carver (he fucking made nitroglycerin from peanuts) or Benjamin Franklin, or Leonardo da Vinci, or Jonas Salk (the man made the first polio vaccine and chose not to patent is for millions of dollars because helping people was more important.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Jobs organized people to invent things for him, which is not exactly what you want to use as an example to young people to encourage them to be innovators themselves.

You can argue that even that barely happened. Jobs always bought up cutting edge tech, let his engineering departement polish it up and put it into a flashy package which appealed to customers. Hence why I almost agree with this:

Steve Jobs was about as 'innovate' as Zynga.

But this just shows how well Apple's marketing works, how well it deludes people and why I hate the company and it's products. They work just fine, but they have this filthy taint about them thanks to things like this survey.

 

[the big fluffeh]

*Mod edit - comment advocating violence towards an individual*

What about friggin Gutenberg, who revolutionized book printing and basically enabled education for broad masses? oh, wait.. i forgot.. only recent innovations in *marketing* count.

 

[Waaghpowa]

What about friggin Gutenberg, who revolutionized book printing and basically enabled education for broad masses?

Clearly all he did was print books, since nobody who took part in this survey appears to have been educated.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Not that Im happy Edison won, but if it means that steve jobs didnt, Im glad. This Apple fanboyism and idea that Steve jobs is some god like figure for being a good businessman is just getting sickening.

...

To be honest, Id say Johannes Gutenberg, since he invented movable type. yeah, tell me where youd be with that THAT steve jobs.

And if not him, maybe Herman Hollerith

 

[ResonanceSD]

Lol, jobs didn't invent squat, stole ideas, was a terrible boss and treated his Chinese employees like dirt. Apple marketing were the geniuses, they manage to get millions to go nuts over inferior products.

Oh yes, sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

 

[WabbitTwacks]

Hmm.. What about Les Paul, who basically invented the electric guitar and various guitar effects? That man deserves to be on the list more than some of the others that are there.