On Friday was Nikola Tesla's birthday and since he was a fellow Serb I feel especially obliged to mention it (and also because Tesla's life is another proof that Serbs are: a) regularly crazy, b) sometimes genius, and c) occasionally both). Increasing mentions of Tesla among general American public is a well deserved, if long overdue, praise for his achievements. There's actually a really cool video narration of his life + stuff he invented (alternating current, X-rays, cellphone technology, and remote control, among other stuff. And yea, all that happened 100 years ago).
Among all his inventions, I find the most impressive this tower, initially financed by J.P.Morgan. Upon learning what that thing really does, Mr. Morgan however, pulled the plug on financing, and blacklisted the project so no one else could make it. So, what that tower did was to aggregate electricity from the air via giant cupola and to "download" it for FREE use. [more on how this worked is described in the video] J.P. Morgan then, naturally, asked a basic question "how do I make money if everyone can get electricity for free?" and upon realizing the obvious answer, prevented the tower from being completed.
This made me think about why people don't really want free stuff. And it also made me think about the relation between the "free" and "innovation". And then I also though a bit about the incredible Tesla's vision & imagination was. Finally, I also have to add that Tesla died broke in a hotel on Sixth Avenue and 40th street, not far away from where I used to work at Razorfish. I guess if a person dedicates his life to inventing things that will serve people, and not capitalizing on them, the expected outcome is not exactly dying rich. Not that it matters.
