Aug 28 2012: My greatest inspiration as an independent inventor is Michael Faraday.
Faraday started his life as a nothing - an average boy born to an impoverished family with a low social caste. He taught himself everything he knew from the books in his master's bookbinding shop. Then he went to work as a servant for one of the great scientists of his day - Sir Humphry Davy - and was constantly treated badly because of his low social caste... but he forced himself through all that and more to build the incredible modern world we take for granted. He invented the first electric motor and the Faraday Cage, and discovered diamagnetism. While Faraday's inventions might not have been the very most important in the history of innovation, I greatly admire him for his use of science as a motivation to overcome society.
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A comment on Conversation: Neil Armstrong has died today at age of 82. In light of his memory and achievement for mankind, who has been your greatest role model & why?
Faraday started his life as a nothing - an average boy born to an impoverished family with a low social caste. He taught himself everything he knew from the books in his master's bookbinding shop. Then he went to work as a servant for one of the great scientists of his day - Sir Humphry Davy - and was constantly treated badly because of his low social caste... but he forced himself through all that and more to build the incredible modern world we take for granted. He invented the first electric motor and the Faraday Cage, and discovered diamagnetism. While Faraday's inventions might not have been the very most important in the history of innovation, I greatly admire him for his use of science as a motivation to overcome society.