Tips for Inventor No: 25/52

Tips:-

Inventor’s risk is those where the “new idea” become a question whether the technology can ever be made to work and find its acceptance in the market place

Essence:-

For most of us, inventing a new product or starting a new business is risky and dangerous. And unless you can see the future (which no one can), it's impossible for you to make all the right decisions, all the time.

?Useless Inventions

Japan is a nation of gadgets. They have invented many good products. Here are some of them, the Floppy Disk, Compact Disc, DVD/Blue Ray, Sony Walkman, Digital Camera, Karaoke, Electronic Calculator, Honda ASIMO Robot, Blue LED lights, and Digital Pets. These are great inventions and they have changed the way we lived. Matter of fact it has changed the world.

But I think Japan have gone overboard too. They have created almost anything and everything that seems fit. But to the larger crowd, those weird inventions posed more problems than solving them. They have a Japanese word that fit this description. It's called Chindogu. Here is the definition of Chindogu found on Wikipedia

Chindōgu (珍道具?) is the Japanese art of inventing ingenious everyday gadgets that, on the face of it, seem like an ideal solution to a particular problem. However, chindōgu has a distinctive feature: anyone actually attempting to use one of these inventions would find that it causes so many new problems, or such significant social embarrassment, that effectively it has no utility whatsoever. Thus, chindōgu are sometimes described as "un-useless" – that is, they cannot be regarded as "useless" in an absolute sense, since they do actually solve a problem; however, in practical terms, they cannot positively be called "useful".

Let me just give you two example of a Chindogu. A Toilet roll hat - A person wears this toiler roll hat on his head and it is convenient for him to pull a piece of paper from the roll for use whenever he needs it to wipe his nose after a sneeze. Isn't that a good idea! But on the hindsight, wouldn't you think it is weird to walk around wearing that silly looking toilet roll hat?

Here another Chindogu that will make your day - a pair of Feet Umbrella. This tiny Feet umbrella is used to protect your shoe from rain when the weather changed. Again don't you think that this is a silly idea? This crazy product becomes more problematic to the users. By wearing a miniature umbrella on the shoe, it will still get wet when it rains because of the way we stride our legs when we walk, the rain will somehow drop onto the shoe. The cute looking umbrella won't be able to protect the shoes from getting wet.

Ha ha ha… Did I hear you laughing?

While in Japan they have Chindogu. Now let's move on to China. Let's turn on the laughing gas. In China, there is this inventor by the name Useless Edison. This 30 years old inventor real name is Geng Shuai who lives just outside Beijing. He was a welder and got so bored with his job. So, he quit and became a full-time inventor. But the trouble with his creation is that it does work. But it makes people laugh. Yes, sometime loudly.

He has actually created quite a lot of inventions. Some of his useless inventions are such as a motorbike with its own toilet. You pee into a tank next to the petro tank. There is also a meat cleaver that can be used as a mobile phone cover. And there's a tennis racket-sized watermelon-slicer. There's the earthquake-proof noodle bowl that swings on its stand to allow the eater to continue slurping the noodle through seismic waves.

Geng Shuai most satisfying invention is his hammer bag. It's a hollow steel mallet with a compartment that slides out at the head of the hammer. Good for storing your phone, keys, and wallet. It has a strap so it can be hang over your shoulder. It's very fashionable. And the interesting part is that he said if someone tries to steal your bag, you can just throw the hammer at them just like the American superhero, Thor.

Geng Shuai inventions are so useless that no one wants to buy. However, on the hind side, his creations are funny. He now makes a living not from his invention but through some inadvertently hilarious videos which have amused more than 2 million viewers on YouTube.

So what we can learn here is that there are two dimensions to the usefulness of a new invention. It is either an invention that is practical and served its purpose. Or it is just a useless invention good for entertainment.

In Malaysia, we have a word for people like Geng Shuai. We call them Shiok sendiri. I've spoken about Cikgu Lim and also Brad in my previous articles. I've narrated how both of them have created useless inventions born out of stupidity.

I suppose by now you would realize that there is always a shiok sendiri inventor somewhere creating useless invention. Hence, you can conclude that people like Chindogu, Useless Edison and Shiok Sendiri, are term used that carries the same meaning, that is, useless inventor creating useless inventions that no one would buy. No one would appreciate. It's only good for a laugh.

In my previous article, I've also explained how you can avoid falling into this bracket of foolish inventors. I've created a test to check your idea. That will give you an indication of the strength of your new idea. We will see you again next week for another useless tip

Be cre8tive selalu

Bugs Tan Ph.D

Inventor