A lot of people come up with good ideas, and then the they claim that people stole them. The great innovators were people who realized the importance of the down stream innovation process. Thomas edison is the classic example of this. He's one of 21 different people who invented the life bulb. But he saidony one. So it's quite profound.
What's the difference between invention and innovation? Could it be that innovation--the process of making a breakthrough invention available, affordable, and reliable--is actually the hard part? In this week's EconTalk episode, author Matt Ridley talks about his book How Innovation Works with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Ridley argues that we give too much credit to inventors and not enough to innovators--those who refine and improve an invention to make it valuable to users. Along the way, he emphasizes the power of trial and error and the importance of permissionless innovation.