Critical and picky - here I go again.

[KenWittlief]

there is another factor at work here - i dont have a catch phrase for it

its very difficult to come up with a geniune new idea - it takes a real flash of insight and brillance - and then to implement a new idea for the first time is 100% new territory

but once you have the first version of your new concept built and working, its VERY easy for someone esle to come along, take a look at what you have accomplished, and find many ways to make it better

one example - I worked for Sayette Technology, the company that originated the idea of putting an LCD panel on an overhead projector, and created the entire LCD projector industry

we build a projector that had two light bulbs and a light sensor and a motor - if the one bulb burned out, the motor would rotate the new bulb into position and turn it on. We sold a lot of these projectors due to this feature alone.

It was a difficult mechanism to get to work right, the wires to the bulbs where heat insulated and it was hard to get it to rotate and stop in just the right position for optical alignment

one of our competitors came out with an automatic light changer - they oneupped us - they had two bulbs pointing at each other, and in the center was a little mirror. When one bulb burned out a little motor flipped the mirror the other way

thats the way engineering is - you normally build on someone else work, find small ways to improve what someone else has already accomplished.

just remembered, there is a catch phrase for this: OneUpManShip