Makers, have you ever been accused of just “mucking about” when working on a project?
Consider yourselves in good company. Thomas Edison employed a team of “Muckers” who could be considered the predecessors to today’s “Makers”.
When inventors are in the midst of a project, it may look like they are just “mucking about” (what other people think of as wasting time or effort). But Makers know, like Edison’s Muckers did, that getting into the “muck” of the inventive process has a purpose and can lead to dramatic breakthroughs.
“The chance for their ambition to work” - Thomas Edison
At Edison’s iron ore mining facility in NJ, his staff worked long and hard on a project to produce bricks that would not absorb moisture; to produce these bricks, they came up with a binding agent they referred to as “muck”. In time, this team of employees at Edison’s labs and factories became known as Edison’s Muckers.
The men who worked for Edison were not primarily motivated by money or fame, but rather by the desire to see their ideas come to fruition. Some of them were inventors in their own right, while others were talented scientists, artists, and craftsmen who pioneered expertise in areas such as film and sound editing at a time when these industries were nascent.
Like today’s Makers, Muckers were inspired by the desire to create, build and improve on theirs and others’ ideas. Consider this list of characteristics of an inventor like Edison (from http://www.edisonmuckers.org/) and see whether any or all of them apply to you as a Maker:
Consider yourselves in good company. Thomas Edison employed a team of “Muckers” who could be considered the predecessors to today’s “Makers”.
When inventors are in the midst of a project, it may look like they are just “mucking about” (what other people think of as wasting time or effort). But Makers know, like Edison’s Muckers did, that getting into the “muck” of the inventive process has a purpose and can lead to dramatic breakthroughs.
“The chance for their ambition to work” - Thomas Edison
At Edison’s iron ore mining facility in NJ, his staff worked long and hard on a project to produce bricks that would not absorb moisture; to produce these bricks, they came up with a binding agent they referred to as “muck”. In time, this team of employees at Edison’s labs and factories became known as Edison’s Muckers.
The men who worked for Edison were not primarily motivated by money or fame, but rather by the desire to see their ideas come to fruition. Some of them were inventors in their own right, while others were talented scientists, artists, and craftsmen who pioneered expertise in areas such as film and sound editing at a time when these industries were nascent.
Like today’s Makers, Muckers were inspired by the desire to create, build and improve on theirs and others’ ideas. Consider this list of characteristics of an inventor like Edison (from http://www.edisonmuckers.org/) and see whether any or all of them apply to you as a Maker:
- Not easily shaken by detractors—persistent in their work
- Passionate about what they do
- Willing to go against accepted thinking
- Visionary and intuitive
- Quantitative and analytical—facile with math
- Not afraid of risk
- Tolerant of ambiguity
- Well developed sense of humor
- Know how to unleash own creative spirit
- Not afraid of failure—willing to learn from it
- Can see the creative links to the arts
- Focused on the future
- See the whole problem and key parts simultaneously
- Can sell their ideas to others
- Builds teams with multi-disciplinary skills to accomplish goals
- Document and protect inventive work
- Solve problems from a multi-dimensional viewpoint
So, next time someone accuses you of “mucking about”, tell them about Edison’s Muckers -- and remind them that it takes passion, patience and vision to be a Maker.
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