Galt's Gulch

Daily Quote: Nikola Tesla

Posted by awebb 10 years, 2 months ago to Philosophy
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  • Posted by jbaker 10 years, 2 months ago
    Love me some Nikola Tesla !!
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    • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 2 months ago
      Had Edison not been so arrogant, there's no telling what the two could have created.
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      • Posted by dbhalling 10 years, 2 months ago
        Certainly would have been interesting. Edison had a number of faults including arrogance and very poor business sense. Edison drove away many talented people.
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        • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 2 months ago
          Oh, I think Edison had very good business sense. His arrogance prevented him from maximizing it. Even so, he is still one of the most prolific inventors of the US.
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          • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago
            While Edison was a prolific inventor and he could sense what people would want, JP Morgan had the necessary business sense to capitalize on Edison's inventions. I have to agree with dbhalling, Edison's arrogance and poor business sense cost both he and Tesla.
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            • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 2 months ago
              Oh, I don't know, GE seemed to be relatively successful.
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              • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago
                Edison never set foot into General Electric after JP Morgan formed GE to take over Westinghouse and Edison Electric. Tesla worked as an employee of Morgan's, and consequently was never properly reimbursed for the sacrifice he made to Westinghouse. Tesla was a great inventor, but never made any significant money off of his work. He died virtually penniless. I recommend to all reading this to watch the 4th of the 5 episodes of The Men Who Built America on the History Channel or H2.
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                • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 2 months ago
                  Loved it.

                  But that said, who's fault is it that Tesla didn't make any money? I would say his own. Granted, he was put in very trying circumstances, but even so, he had the freedom of action to do what he wanted.
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                  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago
                    Indeed, it was Tesla's fault he didn't make any money. Yes, he had trying circumstances. He did exercise his free will to make what he thought at the time was the best out of a bad situation. Galt, however, wouldn't have sold the patent rights.
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                    • Posted by khalling 10 years, 2 months ago
                      patent rights are property, like anything else. If you need to eat....if you want to risk alot for a future business....
                      well
                      The problem today is the huge public backlash against inventors being able to monetize their inventions.
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                      • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago
                        It wasn't quite that desperate for Tesla. I agree completely with the public backlash against inventors being able to monetize their inventions, but that is only one part of the problem. Nowadays, things are changing so quickly that innovations are happening faster than the ability to monetize it. Look at the 3D printing business, for example.
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                        • Posted by khalling 10 years, 2 months ago
                          I don't know about that. In disruptive industries such as the 3D printing , for example, most inventions are building off of each other and you can claim priority off of the earlier invention if it is yours. The biggest problem is how long does it take to get "title" to your invention. The PTO is hugely backlogged, the general Treasury has stolen over 1B dollars in fees over the last decade. The PTO is the ONLY self-funding govt agency. When they were passing the reforms(which are harmful to the small inventor, great for the big boys) there was an amendment proposed to allow the patent office to keep its fees. Big republican names opposed this-even though in the big scheme of federal deficits this money wouldn't make a dent-but would significantly reduce the amount of time inventors wait to get patents-Lamar Smith and Paul Ryan to name a couple-not friends of inventors.
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                          • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago
                            Most inventions are building off of each other as you said. If the time to get title on your invention is less than the time for someone to improve on it, as is the case for the 3D printing business, then trying to monetize such an invention becomes very difficult. I've only filed for one patent myself so far, so I can't comment on the current backlog.
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                            • Posted by khalling 10 years, 2 months ago
                              I am not being clear. If you have a patent that is key to the technology, even if the marketplace has moved beyond the original implications, you can still monetize it.
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                              • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago
                                I thought you were crystal clear. Monetizing an invention requires that a sufficient number of people are going to buy it before the patent expires (or perhaps even is awarded).
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                                • Posted by khalling 10 years, 2 months ago
                                  that is correct. but the patent can cover technologies incorporated by other inventions. It's essentially the story of Swan and Edison. Swan made an incandescent lightbulb. It had a low resistance filament and did not have the longevity of Edison's bulb. Swan sued Edison for violating his patent and won.
                                  In a free market, one should be able to make money being simply an inventor-not manufacturer, distributor or even marketer. In Objectivism, you own yourself, therefore you own the products of your mind, including inventions. The US has drastically weakened its patent system over the last several decades. It used to be the strongest in the world and with other strong property rights is why our fledgling country became the greatest, wealthiest nation in the world in 150 short years. Japan sent a delegation to the US in the 1860s to study how this happened. Their conclusion was the patent system and they copied our system at the time and shortly thereafter the avg person in Japan escaped the Malthusian trap.
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                                  • jbrenner replied 10 years, 2 months ago
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago
    It's a great quote.
    HOWEVER...

    While an assistant for Edison, Nikola Tesla was initially rejected with regard to AC power. Before becoming successful with George Westinghouse at getting his AC power technology adopted at the Chicago World's Fair and then at Niagara Falls, Tesla had to sell royalty rights to his patent. As much as I admire Tesla, this move was definitely not Galtish. Consequently, Tesla died almost bankrupt.
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    • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 2 months ago
      How do you figure he was not Galtish? He did what he needed to do to bring his invention/vision to fruition. The fact that he died almost bankrupt was a function of 1) Edison's ability to attack him, and 2) his less than stellar business acumen.
      Tesla was the better electronics inventor, Edison the better marketer.
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      • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago
        Edison had less than stellar business acumen, too. He couldn't see potential rivals (like Tesla and Westinghouse) nearly as well as JP Morgan (Edison's financier) did.
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      • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 2 months ago
        Selling the royalty rights was a mistake.
        Edison did attack him, but that wasn't really Tesla's undoing. J.P. Morgan bought them both out: first Edison, then Westinghouse/Tesla to form General Electric. Morgan sued Westinghouse/Tesla for "patent infringement". Today, Tesla would have won, but they didn't have enough money to fight. Rather than let Morgan and Edison win, Tesla sold his patent royalties to Westinghouse, allowing other investors to invest in Westinghouse. They soon won the battle to get the Niagara contract, but lost the war due to lack of funds. Tesla was like Galt in terms of invention, but Galt wouldn't sell his key patent like that.
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