Klein and Thompson argue in Abundance that tinkering, embodiment in working systems and scaling are essential to making inventions useful.

Evidence 1 passage

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  built its scale, the way Ford's Model T came down in price before it made a big difference to the country. Tinkering. Embodiment. Scaling. These are examples of what Mokyr calls micro-inventions, or the incremental improvements needed to turn a new idea into a significant product. These micro-inventions are often more important than the original breakthrough. For example, it's broadly understood that Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in his Menlo Park, New Jersey lab in 1879. But what exactly did he invent? Certainly not electric power. In 1800, the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta reportedly built the first battery with electric current. Not electric light either. In 1809, Humphrey Davy built the first practical arc lamp that sent a span of sparks across two rods. Edison didn't even invent light bulbs. In 1841, the English inventor Frederick de Molins was granted the first patent for a charcoal-powered incandescent lamp. So what did Edison actually do? In his chambers, he painstakingly burned hundreds of materials inside a glass vacuum until he settled on a carbonized bamboo to serve as an efficient light bulb filament. Understanding that electric light required the steady delivery of electricity, Edison also built a system of generators to make power, wires to carry it,

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