If thomas edison had been run over by a tram before he'd invented the light bulb, we would still have light bulbs. The first computer an if it was the eniac in philadelphia, well, the eniac didn't have stored programs. And whoever got the most successful search engine still be a billionaire. So you can see how innovation is more collective and distributed than we generally give it credit for.
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.