Inventing is a numbers game.
Edison said it the best, “I found 10,000 ways not to make a lightbulb.” Nowadays, you can google how a lightbulb works and it seems like common sense.
But when candles were the only source of light at night, no one had a clue how a lightbulb worked.
This resonates with me a lot. My experiments have failed more times than I can count, but whenever I do get one to work, will it seem obvious?
I felt that way when I invented my Teazzed Straw. I discovered a way to make brewed tea in less than 30 seconds, and invented a straw to use the technique with. Now, it seems like common sense, but I went through a lot of trial and error to get to that point.
I wonder how many other things we take for granted and consider common sense, when it cost people lots of manpower and perhaps years to make that common sense known.
Cell phone technology. Netflix. Kitty litter.
Where would we be without the failed experiments that came before us?