#133 Edwin Land (Polaroid and The Man Who Invented It)

What I learned from reading Land’s Polaroid: A Company and The Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg. ---- [1:14] He was revered to an extraordinary extent by most of the people who worked for him.   [1:36] Land did not earn a college degree, yet he has received more medals and scientific honors than most living Americans.   [3:36]  Land's life seemed to be primarily a life of the mind. His great dramas were largely self created, played on the stage of Polaroid, which he constructed for himself.  [4:14] All of the people that you and I are studying on this podcast created their own world within the world.   [5:55] The end this book made me think of this quote by Steve Jobs: Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.  [7:38] Peter [the author] worked with Edwin Land for 20 years. As a result this book —more than any other— has a lot of direct quotes from Land.   [7:50] “Nature doesn’t care.” By that he meant nothing in nature would help or hinder their progress to a solution except their own ingenuity. Nature offered no bar to the elegant solution over the awkward compromise if they had the imagination to seek it and the wit to discover it. Nature had no concern for the affairs of men.  [9:42] At 37 years old he had achieved everything to which he aspired except success.   [10:55]  This product, this innovation, this creation— of one of the most important products ever made— came at a time when the company was almost out of business.  [12:42] Land said running his company felt like he was a physics professor leading his