Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

2.3. Lesson 4: Knowing

Contrary to popular mythology, which often portrays him as an exclusively hands-on, strictly trial-and-error experimenter, Edison did not disdain scientific theory, but he did put the very highest value on theory that was directly founded on firsthand observation based on actual experimentation. Moreover, he did not feel that he could truly know a subject if all he had was a theoretical knowledge of it. To gain the knowledge he believed necessary for the creation of an invention, Edison would begin by taking steps to understand fully the electrical or chemical properties of the elements of whatever device he was building. Concrete, specific, intimate knowledge of these properties was far more meaningful to him as an inventor ...