The Man With 3300 Patents

Fun read in Smithsonian Magazine about Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu, a.k.a. "Sir Dr. Nakamats", who claims to have more than 3300 patents including the original floppy disk.

By Frotz at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

He's clearly a wacko but also has some interesting things to say about successful innovation.

Money quote:

That early floppy, he says, is perhaps the purest embodiment of Ikispiration, the Dr. NakaMats system of creativity. Ikispiration has three essential elements: suji (“theory”), pika (“inspiration”) and iki (“practicality”). “To be a successful invention, all three are needed,” says Dr. NakaMats. “Many inventors have pika, but not the iki to realize their dreams.”

This actually makes a great deal of sense to me: a balance between what is known and practical taken someplace new thru inspiration.

Then there is this hilarious comment on having children (he has three):

“A child can be invented four ways,” he grumbles. “Smart seed, smart field. Smart seed, stupid field. Stupid seed, smart field. Stupid seed, stupid field.”

And how did his kids turn out?

“All stupid due to stupid field.”

So much for Mrs. NakaMats.

And so much for nature vs. nurture.