Thomas Edison holds the US record for the largest number of patents at one thousand ninety-three; he had one thousand three hundred when counting foreign patents. He held the world record until this number was surpassed in 2003 by a Japanese inventor. It took seventy- two years after the death of Thomas Edison for him to be surpassed, and still no American has reached his record. The large number of patents does not seem as insane when Thomas Edison’s methodology and mindset are analyzed. Edison’s critical, creative, and practical thinking revolutionized the invention industry. Thomas Edison significantly changed the development of inventions by changing the ideology behind the failure. His creativity brought innovation and improved the lives …show more content…
He was extremely creative and was able to keep thinking outside of the box, but he used his practical thinking to bring his inventions from his head and into reality. One of the key aspects of his practical thinking was the fact that he built his home down the road from his laboratory. This way his commute was minimized. Also if he had a breakthrough while eating dinner, it wasn’t a big ordeal to go back to his lab. He could be back at his lab in minutes to continue working. He also used his critical thinking in regards to his assistants. According to The Papers of Thomas A. Edison, Edison would rather his assistants to be generalists rather than specialists. He wanted them to be able to handle any task he gave them (Edison 273). This thinking was practical, that instead of hiring people who could only do one thing, he found people that could do many things. This increased productivity, instead of wasting time finding the right person to do the job, anyone could do it. Another aspect of his practical thinking was his ability to realize that he could not do all that he wanted to on his own. He was just one man, but with thousands of ideas. He could not work on them all with all his time and energy at once. This is why he had dozens of people working for him. While he thought up new ideas, his employees were working on developing his other ideas. This way he was not spread too thin, and all his ideas were developed to their fullest