8.9. Lesson 73: Try a Kaleidoscopic Approach
Well-meaning parents and teachers tell us to finish one thing before we begin another. It is advice so common that it is seldom questioned. Edison rejected it outright.
No one attacked a problem as persistently as Thomas Edison, but he always worked simultaneously on multiple projects. An attorney for Western Union, under whose auspices Edison worked early in his career, marveled at what he called his "remarkable kaleidoscopic brain. He turns that head of his and these things come out as in a kaleidoscope, in various combinations, most of which are patentable."
Edison was both stimulated and refreshed by working on more than one project at once. Moreover, this kaleidoscopic approach often allowed ...
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