Episode Transcript
Richard Miles 00:00:01 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'll bring us alongside their journey as they share their personal stories from start to finish, including the triumphs, the failures, and everything in between.
Richard Miles 00:00:30 So, James, we're calling Radio Cade, the Inventivity Pod now. Take a stab, what is in Inventivity, I'm sure our listeners want to know.
James Di Virgilio 00:00:37 Inventivity, a noun, is a word that we've created here at the Cade and essentially it's an inventive mindset. It's creating new things, embracing problems without apparent solutions. Believing failure can be just as useful as success, taking risks and being resilient despite setbacks and anticipating that solutions often come from surprising sources. Richard, you and I have seen this in every episode we've done, and now we're just formalizing it with Inventivity, a name that we think fits more appropriately.
Richard Miles 00:01:06 You know, we're really excited about this work 'cause I think it captures something that we've been trying to bring out in this podcast. And as you said, James, it's sort of this mix of creativity and invention. We're so excited about the word, we've actually trademarked it! Cause we know other people are going to steal it. But are we changing anything else about the podcast? Are we still gonna be bringing great hosts on? You know, what are we gonna be doing when they come on?
James Di Virgilio 00:01:25 Well, we're still gonna be giving you information direct from the sources of those that are engaging in Inventivity. And how that format is throughout time may change because of course, we ourselves, Richard, have to be inventive using Inventivity to figure out how to best navigate the podcast waters. But the same great content you've had before will be coming and hopefully it will be even better.
Richard Miles 00:01:44 So James, you and I have both spoken to dozens of inventors and entrepreneurs, is there a common thread between them. What sort of jumps out at you? What do you think embodies Inventivity in the people that you've spoken to?
James Di Virgilio 00:01:56 I think from, from those that were taking us to space, uh, to healthcare, to innovative undersea products, the one thing that's consistent for all of them is the journey was not expected. Unexpected things happen. Oftentimes, there were significant setbacks or failures, but the stories as we imagine them for the Elon Musk of the world or others are not linear. They're often filled with very interesting moments, uh, that maked or braked essentially, uh, what these entrepreneur stories were.
Richard Miles 00:02:23 One thing that jumps out at me, James, is to riff off for your point there, is they have unusual backgrounds. A lot of 'em have unusual backgrounds. They have unusual educations. Their parents did different things. They grew up in different places and inventors and entrepreneurs just seem to come from this upbringing or education that basically is different. It's not a cookie cutter way of approaching their own education and of life.
James Di Virgilio 00:02:45 Yeah or they broke out of the cookie cutter mindset and said, Hey, this world is full of other things and perhaps I wanna try my hand at something. But I think it's never been lost on me that failure has often been that motivator. We've heard so many stories where somebody lost a job got fired, or they had to leave their job for family reasons, and then they were like, well, now that I'm free of sort of this career I had in my mind, maybe I'll try this idea that's been burning within me, uh, because that risk quotient has changed.
Richard Miles 00:03:12 So James, basically what we're saying, we want people to listen to this podcast. We want 'em to quit school, quit their job, you know, dump their family, spend all their savings and chase their dream. That's basically what we're saying, right?
James Di Virgilio 00:03:22 In a nutshell, that's what you're gonna get, right. Throw caution to the wind. No. Oftentimes right, innovation is one small step away from where you think things are. And, and you'll hear that throughout these stories from these inventors and entrepreneurs, is they were doing something. They saw one small tweak, one small problem, and that may have launched them into an entire new field, or it may have just launched them into the next great iteration of what they were already studying.
Richard Miles 00:03:43 This is what I like about talking to our guests too, is because most of us are not research scientists. We're not in, in fact gonna be inventors with a patent. But we take away from this, this ability to problem solve, as you said, to look at life and problems slightly differently. Step outside of ourselves, figure out is there another way I can do this? And that really, I think, is a core of what we're trying to do with this podcast.
James Di Virgilio 00:04:02 Yeah, absolutely. We hope that you, the listener, takes away the Inventivity mindset. That's really what we're doing this for, that you yourself can apply these ideas into your own lives, create your own solutions to problems that exist within your world, and really spur you on to do more with the resources around you.
Richard Miles 00:04:18 Inventivity, it's a brand new word. I hope people everywhere start using it.
James Di Virgilio 00:04:22 Me too.
James Di Virgilio 00:04:25 The Inventivity Pod is produced by the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention located in Gainesville, Florida. Richard Miles and me, James Di Virgilio are your podcast hosts. Podcasts are recorded at the Heartwood Sound stage 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.
