As i was reading through Tobi’s Blog on remixing music and creating new music from the old styles. It got me thinking… And crazy enough, sometimes i surprise myself, and come up with a revelation. Like right now.
Tobi talked about how artists are using old beats (samples) to make new music or change the beat around a little bit and make it their own. This can be applied to everything in the world. And i mean everything! Charles Babbage came up with the idea of a computer and invented it. Someone then took his brilliant idea and made it into a Macbook Pro.
Obviously there were a few steps in between computers then and now. But if you think about it, really someone just made a spin-off version of Charles’ idea. Then it evolved to something more and then more and more. Then centuries later… We have these amazing pieces of technology.
Another example that is very prevalent in our current day to day lives is the difference between Ozark Trail and Yeti. They both essentially have the same exact design, size, and materials. But one small design change can make a product “completely different”. Which sucks in a way, because if you were the owner of Yeti. You would have lost your shit if you knew that someone else was making millions off of your design. I know i would be.
What is crazy to think is that there are only a few original ideas out there in this world. Everything else has just evolved and made it a little different. Think about the first internal combustion engine. Someone came up with that idea and had a design for it, then someone else changed the design a little and made it better. And so on. It is crazy to think that all of the products and appliances that we have in our lives, that there was only one “original” idea in that product. Yes… People though of ways to make it better and had thoughts and ideas of how to make something better, but only one person came up with the idea and everyone else is just claiming fame to their innovation. Apple wouldn’t exist if Charles Babbage wouldn’t have made the first computer.
It’s hard for people like us engineers and intellectual people to accept… But we really haven’t came up with shit on our own…
Nonintellectual Meandering 
I feel a little out of the loop because I honestly had no idea that Ozark Trail was a thing…and that it looked exactly like Yeti. Definitely a great example of the potential lack of originality that inventors are struggling with today. As you said, there are original ideas here and there, but most of the time it feels like a competition between a bunch of companies who are creating essentially the same product, based on the same idea, but with little tweaks here and there to make it “original”,
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I feel a little out of the loop because I honestly had no idea that Ozark Trail was a thing…and that it looked exactly like Yeti. Definitely a great example of the potential lack of originality that inventors are struggling with today. As you said, there are original ideas here and there, but most of the time it feels like a competition between a bunch of companies who are creating essentially the same product, based on the same idea, but with little tweaks here and there to make it “original”.
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It’s crazy to think about this for sure. Subtle differences in pieces of technology makes one better than the other, but in reality. You probably couldn’t tell the difference overall. It’s annoying, but kind of interesting to this kind of competition among competitors. It almost seems as though one brand is for the marketing purposes or the “cool factor” (such as Yeti) and the other is being simple and saving people money (such as Ozark Trail). Personally, I like saving money and find it fun so I always prefer to go with the cheaper option and still enjoy the same benefits as the “popular” option.
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