As Shane troubleshot the rat's next of electrical wiring in the foyer last night he commented that my methods for home renovation were Edisonian. I gave him a perplexed look as he explained what that meant. Essentially, that my typical way of working around the house is trial and error. He's right.
In Mr. Edison's honor, here are a few inspiring quotes:
- Hell, there are no rules here-- we're trying to accomplish something.
I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
When I want to discover something, I begin by reading up everything that has been done along that line in the past - that's what all these books in the library are for. I see what has been accomplished at great labor and expense in the past. I gather data of many thousands of experiments as a starting point, and then I make thousands more.
I relate to his first and last quotes the most. Reading renovation material in books and online is necessary and useful, but there comes a time where you have to roll up your sleeves and use more of a trial and error approach.
2 comments:
Next time in Ft. Myers you'll have to visit the Edison/Ford winter estates. The museum and his laboratory are really interesting.
Pretty cool. Around Detroit we had Greenfield Village, which had Edison's old Menlo park building.
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