Steve Wozniak. Thomas A. Edison. Albert Einstein.
What do all of these people have in common? They bought about paradigm shifts in the world of technology. Bringing about paradigm shifts is not an easy job in the current technological climate, however, this is what I aspire to do so; especially as doing so involves a great deal of creative and critical thinking. I am basing this off 3 people who are influential in my profession discipline. Although not all of these were mechanical engineers, their work and life was related to engineering nonetheless. Furthermore, I wish to invent something amazing in the future, thus, the lives of these people are most relevant to my professional future. Nonetheless, I will profile all of these people in order to analyze what it was about them that led them to achieve such greatness.
Steve Wozniak
Image 1: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1975
Steve Wozniak was in fact an employee of Hewlett-Packard when he first invented the first ever computer to have a keyboard and a screen. Having read his semi-autobiography (iWoz by Gina Smith and Steve Wozniak), I can clearly see why it was him and not anybody else who managed such a feat. Wozniak experimented a great deal with circuitry and worked upon and tried to better all that had already been created. His main feature was that he did all of these things as a hobby first, before even considering it as a profession. This could be better put by saying that he led a professional life for the sake of self-satisfaction and that income and success was just a by-product of his endeavors. Another fun fact I’d like to add here: Steve Wozniak was also the first person to ever create the Universal Remote Control.
Albert Einstein
Image 2: Albert Einstein
Einstein was a man of questions. As the story goes, he once argued with his history teacher over the usefulness of history. It is Einstein’s search for answers that were acceptable and universal that led him to discover the photoelectric effect and postulate the theories of relativity. Perhaps this can be best described, again, as the desire to better what is already known and has been made. Einstein was also a great philosopher who constantly tried to take into account the bigger picture. In his statement “God does not play dice with the universe” it is apparent that he was always in search of aesthetic as well as functional value in his theories. In terms of my profession, aesthetic value is also starting to establish an important position as it adds to the significance of a machine in many functional ways. A machine is quite if its functionality does not cohere with one’s intuition for beauty and worldliness, as it would never fully be used. In many ways, this is the reason behind the Mac OS X’s user-friendliness comparable success to Microsoft Windows impressive functionality (with much credit going to the late Steve Jobs).
Thomas A. Edison
Image 3: Thomas A Edision
Thomas A. Edison is known for revolutionizing the electrical industry through inventing the light bulb and many other devices. It is a well known fact that Edison made over 2000 failed light bulbs before making one that worked. Basically, Edison had a lot of perseverance. This is important especially in a field where not much is known about the mechanisms because one really cannot discover without at least once engaging in the trial-and-error process. He is evidence of the fact that one needs to keep pushing in the direction of change for the better if he/she is to achieve it. One other thing that I’d like to add at this point is the fact that Mr. Edison had patented over 1000 inventions over his lifetime. This goes on to show that one does not have to stop after achieving success only once; instead, one must always strive to achieve more and more and to expand the horizons further.
Sources:
Image 1: http://www.realgeek.com/apple-not-against-iphone-hackers/
Courtesy of Steve Wozniak
Image 2: http://www.bhm.ch/de/news_04a.cfm?bid=4&jahr=2006
Courtesy of Ferdinand Schmutzer
Image 3: http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-edison
Courtesy of Library of Congress
Amit Garg 
My favorite quote from Edison is where he says that he didn’t fail. He just found out 2,000 ways not to make a light bulb. I think this is a really practical if we were to apply it to our lives. I’ll give an example in programming. In my computer science class, I don’t become angry when my coding crashes. It’s useful to know when something coded a certain way won’t work.
All great choices here. Each changed the world in his own way, be it through science or innovative technology. Just for the record, I believe that Edison didn’t invent the light bulb so much as create a much safer alternative light bulb. Still, it was news to me that he failed over 2000 times.