Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

4.4. Lesson 28: Start Small, Scale Up

The phrase "trial and error" is often applied—and applied indiscriminately, almost automatically—to the creative method of Thomas Edison. Where some projects were concerned, this description was accurate enough, as when Edison searched far and wide for the perfect material to use as an electric light filament. Theory could not answer the question of what material would work best. No one had any experience passing electrical current through materials for the purpose of creating light. The only option in surveying this utterly unexplored territory was to acquire a thorough understanding of the properties of a very wide range of materials under current and in a vacuum. The only way to gain this understanding ...