When Thomas Edison Exposed his Dark and Inhumane Side
The toughest of challenges brings out the true character of a human being
If there was a popularity contest between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, Edison would win by a landslide. The reason being that, from an early age, we are taught that Edison is one of the biggest inventors the world has ever seen.
And Tesla is just another scientist, although he developed the innovative ideas for x-rays, remote controls, radio, the electric motor, etc. The fact that Nikola Tesla died a relatively poor man, while Thomas Edison died a multimillionaire is also proof of how the world saw these two scientists.
But Edison did not see Tesla as just another scientist. Edison considered him a dangerous rival and an astute scientist whose ideas could cause Edison serious monetary losses.
The most recent such rivalry that comes to mind is of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste,” Jobs famously said in 1996
Yet despite the verbal spats, (and occasional lawsuits) and the rivalry, both Jobs and Gates knew that there was room in the consumer market for both Apple and Microsoft to coexist, and over the years, neither was too proud or too stung by the…
