April 03, 2008

The Inventor and the Hunter

An Inventor's life is like that of a Hunter in many ways. The one that stands out is the fact that the Inventor lives in a world of wild ideas and the Hunter lives in a world of wild animals.
  • You never know when a wild idea (animal) is going to come by
  • The more alert you are, the better is your chance of capturing (shooting) the idea (animal)
  • The slightest of carelessness can make the Inventor (Hunter) to miss a passing idea (animal)
  • There are always plenty of ideas (animals)
  • The Inventor takes pride in the list of inventions under his name, and the Hunter takes pride in walking his visitors through his "Hunters Hall of Fame"
  • The more experienced the Inventor (Hunter) is, the easier he is able to capture (shoot) an idea (animal)
The only difference is that the Inventor's bowl of ideas has no boundaries - The universe (or more?) is the limit; whereas the Hunter is restricted by hunting zones and boundaries and the man made governances. Thats why Inventors take the pride!

2 comments:

prakash murthy said...

Interesting line of thinking. I disagree on a few aspects.

For a huntress, the target is always some or the other animal - including humans. For an inventress(?), there is no specific target; an idea can come in different shapes and forms, while the huntress' animals have a definite shape and form which the huntress is familiar with.

A lot has been written recently to disprove the myth of "Eureka" in the world of innovation. Comparing inventing to hunting sort of perpetuates the myth of instantaneous and serendipitous nature of the invention business.

Karthik Vijayakumar said...

Prakash,

Thats the reason I've mentioned that a inventor is "in many ways" like a hunter....not "always" (as there are always exceptions). Not sure why you mentioned about huntress and the new word "inventress"!

Secondly, I'd not call invention as "business". It can result in business, but is not a business by itself. I would disagree with your last point; thinking (structured/random) is an art that can help one innovate/invent. Will talk more on this in my future posts.