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Founders: #134 Edwin Land (Polaroid vs Kodak)

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What I learned from reading A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein. ---- [0:21] He died in 1991 with 535 patents to his credit, third in U.S. history. His honorary doctorate degrees, too numerous to list, come from the most distinguished academic institutions, including Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. He received virtually every distinction the scientific community has to offer, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and membership in the prestigious Royal Society of London. Land was included on Life’s list of the 100 most important Americans of the twentieth century. [1:35] In so many ways, on so many occasions, Land’s life was a manifestation of the indefatigable can-do attitude he embraced and encouraged others to follow. [2:15] Land has the well-grounded suspicion that good, careful, systematic planning can kill a creative company. [2:34] Pick problems that are important and nearly impossible to solve, pick problems that are the result of sensing deep and possibly unarticulated human needs, pick problems that will draw on the diversity of human knowledge for t

[00:00:00] While Polaroid's products may have achieved an iconic status in our popular culture, their progenitor, Edwin Land, remains largely an unknown and underappreciated figure in our nation's technological history. This is somewhat surprising, as his accomplishments meet or surpass those of many better-known personalities. He died in 1991 with 535 patents to his credit, third in U.S. history. His honorary doctorate degrees, too numerous to list, come from the most distinguished academic institutions, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, the…

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