27 Wonderful Inventions That Solve Those Annoying Little Problems

Ideas may come like thunderbolts, but it can take a long time to see them clearly – too long. And ideas are often born unexpectedly – from complexity, contradiction, and, more than anything else, perspective. Alan Kay, father of the personal computer (among other things), likes to say that perspective is worth 50 points of IQ (it may be worth more, Alan). Marvin Minsky, father of artificial intelligence, says that you don't know something until you know it in more than three ways. They're both quite right.