What is the link between innovation and invention?

 

What is the link between innovation and invention?

Two of my brothers are golf nuts. I’m not certain why they turned out that way, but my thinking is that it must be a genetic abnormality in the Bowman lineage. Anyway, they invented a golfing aide that displays some sort of high speed lasers that helps golfers lose their golf balls less often. Apparently, the way a player hits the ball determines where it ends up at and some players are better than others.

There is nothing like this invention on the market and was even shown for free on the Golf Channel. They have even got several patents for this toy. I haven’t bought one yet simply because golfing is not my thing, but a lot of other golf nuts have.

On the other hand, I have been working on an innovation. What you see below in my workshop in the boonies of Thailand is a former Thai fruit press, that I’m turning into a pizza press. Why? My wife has a pizza joint that sells a lot of pizzas three days a week and rolling out enough dough for a hundred people or so each day is actually pretty hard work.

Growing up on a farm, my father’s philosophy was that poor people have poor ways and sometimes a problem took some figuring out. My dilemma is that commercial pizza presses are expensive in Thailand mainly because the best ones are made in either Italy or America. To order one means dealing with Thai Customs and trust me, they are proud of their work and charge accordingly.

I didn’t invent the Thai fruit press nor have I invented any sort of pizza press. Actually, I’ve never invented anything nor had to worry about paying patent attorneys who are also proud of their work. Come to think of it, maybe the DNA that powers inventions wasn’t passed down to me at all. But, I can innovate…