7.6. Lesson 64: Exploit the Unexpected

"Guard against results," Edison warned John Ott, one of his most trusted experimenters, meaning that Ott should not allow himself to become so focused on looking for anticipated results that he overlooked or ignored the unexpected results that might point the way to new inventions.

Edison's injunction to Ott points up the powerful aleatoric component in the inventor's method, his openness to randomness, to chance. Personally, Edison possessed the self-confidence not merely to allow himself to be lured down experimental byroads, but actually to invite distraction. Yet sometimes even his vision failed, and he was unable to peer outside the box.

Edison frequently told reporters and biographers that his favorite ...

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