“None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”–Thomas Edison, 1929

“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search… I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety percent of his labor.”–Nikola Tesla, 1931

“Innovation happens, which is strikingly similar to the phrase ‘stuff happens’, ‘Así es la vida‘ or ‘C’est la view.’…  in interview after interview, we heard the same message: The innovations for which the firms were known arrived almost by happenstance… the most successful innovators in the sample of innovators in 1974 relied on what I call ‘the shotgun approach to squirrel hunting.’ Slap in cartridges and blast in the general direction of the squirrel… The net net of the study was that innovation was a dark art. None of the companies in our sample of 12 had a repeatable formula for producing inventions. Curiosity, persistence, intelligence, instinct, time, a tolerance for failure, and luck seemed to be the common ingredients.”–Stephen Arnold, 2011