Random thoughts: it’s funny what you think is important.

When I was younger, I wondered about who people credit with investing the incandescent light bulb. Many people will say Thomas Edison, others will say Joseph Swan, and others from outside the angliosphere may give yet another answer.

But ISTM now that it’s a really weird thing to focus on. The light bulb was obvious. Its invention is trivial, and the fact that several people did it simultaneously should tell us that. It wasn’t a great breakthrough. Everyone knew wire glowed when it got hot. The problem in using it for light was that it burned.

It’s not the invention of the light bulb that’s important. It’s the invention of the vacuum pump.