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看山跑死馬- Never mistake a clear view for short distance
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看山跑死馬- Never mistake a clear view for short distance
Today’s New York time has an interesting article about “How come a good idea takes so long to become commercially viable?”
The articles gave many examples and the experience of one inventor on the time required (decades) from invention to commercial success. Generally, the more sophisticated the ideas behind the invention, regardless how useful, the longer it takes for the public to appreciate the importance and practical usage of it. There is an old cynical saying by the well known American showman P.T. Barnum which says “you will never go broke by underestimating the intelligence of the public”. What miraculous discovery made by and insights gained by you will often be judged otherwise by the public. Furthermore, heavy capital investment in an industry also prevents quick adoption of new ways of doing things even if the latter is clearly advantageous. This is the main reasoning as to why the US still fails to adopt the metric system of weights and measurement. Machiavalli also mentioned this in his well known political treatise more than 500 years ago (see my earlier blog article: http://www.sciencenet.cn/blog/user_content.aspx?id=3214)
“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain of its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things . . . for you will have all those who profit from the old order as your enemies”
Scientist and engineers who dream of fame and fortune in the real world should keep these in mind.
https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1565-28314.html
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