Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Inventivity? What does it mean? The state of being inventive creating or designing new things or thoughts? Hello, I'm Richard Miles. Welcome to the Inventivity Pod. Join us as we speak to inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries who are using Inventivity to change the world. They will bring us alongside their journey as they share their personal stories from start to finish, including the amps, the failures, and everything in between.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Hello, and welcome to the Inventivity Pod. I'm Richard Miles. We just wrapped up our Hope for the Future series with some amazing guests. I found these conversations fun, informative and inspiring. And I wanted to share a highlight from some of the best in the series. Hope you enjoy. I talked to Dr. Anthony Engler about his vanishing polymer. He describes how his high school chemistry teacher was a positive influence on his journey to becoming an inventor, illustrating how role models, and especially teachers, can shape young visionaries.
[00:01:04] Speaker C: Now, I know you also didn't you have a high school chemistry teacher, right, who you said sort of made chemistry interesting and enjoyable?
[00:01:11] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:01:11] Speaker E: Can you tell a little bit about.
[00:01:13] Speaker C: Her in that class?
[00:01:14] Speaker D: Absolutely. So her name is Patricia Braymeyer. Uh, she taught, uh, the first introductory chemistry course at Paralyzed High School when I was still attending there. And she was just a very enthusiastic teacher. So the one thing that really stuck with me was when she kind know, the first week, first day of class, she kind of know, some people think chemistry is really hard, but I have the secret to chemistry. And she kind of goes and writes it up to the board. And then she kind of breaks chemistry into three different syllables. So the secret to chemistry is Kim is try. So she kind of said, well, as long as you give a good faith effort and you really try in this class, you're going to learn chemistry, you're going to pass, you'll be better off for it. And that really stuck with me that it was really just kind of putting your effort to it and, uh, trying and learning something really important coming out of it.
[00:01:59] Speaker C: And is she still around? Has she been able to see you and your progress as a PhD professor?
[00:02:04] Speaker D: Yeah, we're still connected on social media things. I think she's fully retired as a teacher, but we still keep in contact through posts on Facebook and stuff.
[00:02:12] Speaker E: Oh, great.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: In my conversation with Dr. John Cotter about his invention, Concrete Idea, he gives our listeners advice on how to develop their original ideas.
[00:02:22] Speaker F: Let's get to one final question here. And what would be some wisdom that you would pass along to current innovators, future innovators? Anyone who might take on a path of Inventivity?
[00:02:34] Speaker G: It's thinking outside the box. Normal things you'd hear from people, coming up with ideas, seeing if other people have done them, checking to see if it's original. Learn m from the process of the other people doing it and see what you can make next from that, it will guide you over time to having something that is original. And original is like, halfway there. I know that that's crazy, and I was very upsetting to me to begin with. But you have to go from a bunch of original ideas, then you have to find ones that people want to do. You have to find ones that are economically beneficial. There are a bunch of other barriers you have to get through, but you just have to keep coming up with those novel ideas, because that's what drives the whole process.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: My interview with Rodrigo Grisi on Breaking and Creating is one of my favorites. And it describes the differences between the innovation systems in Brazil, the country of his birth, and the United States, his new home.
[00:03:30] Speaker E: First of all, everybody wants to sell something to the US. Market. It's one of the most demanding markets in the world. And so the entire planet is trying to sell some solutions. So competition in the US. Is way bigger than in Brazil. So you have to be way more prepared in, uh, every aspect in terms of how your solution is developed, how you're taking care of all the aspects, all the impacts of your solution on everybody that's involved into the building and delivering and servicing. So this is a great learning experience, uh, changing that environment. On another level, uh, in Brazil, the tolerance for risk is higher. So I guess business take more risks than in the US. So you can experiment more. And for inventors, innovators, uh, for breaking and creating new stuff, this is a good market as well, because you can test things out. People are more, uh, willing to test. I think in the US. Everything is more tied down and the liability issues and, uh, insurance, uh, I think there's less, uh, room for breaking things, if you understand me. Not breaking things, like damaging too much, but you have to have some failures in a lab, sometimes things explode and, uh, you have to go through that route. Of course, calculated risks, uh, it's the measurement here. We don't want to explode every day.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: Be sure to go back and listen to those full episodes to capture the richness of the conversations. Be on the lookout for our next series on the blue economy. Thank you for listening.
[00:05:23] Speaker H: The Inventivity Pod is produced by the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention, located in Gainesville, Florida. Richard Miles and me, James De Virgilio, are your podcast hosts. Podcasts are recorded at the Heartwood Soundstage in Gainesville and edited and mixed by Rob Rothschild. Be sure to subscribe to The Inventivity Pod wherever you get your podcasts and leave a comment or review to let us know how we're doing. Until next time, be inventive.
