Sometimes it’s nice to hear what The Youth think. This year’s Lemelson-MIT Invention Index , released today, does just that. There were a couple of things in there that caught my eye.
The first item turned my head, given the recent untimely death of Steve Jobs. The above infographic shows who the 1,000 respondents of the survey, who were between 16 and 25, thought was the greatest innovator of all time.
As you can see, it’s not Jobs. Mark Zuckerberg did make the list, shockingly (to me, anyway), but with 3 percent.
As for what makes an inventor, according to a Lemelson-MIT press release, “More than half (55 percent) of young Americans cite creativity as the quality that best describes an inventor. Fewer think inventors are people who are problem solvers (24 percent), intelligent (13 percent), employed in a technical field (4 percent) or nerdy or quirky (3 percent).”
The other part of the survey I found interesting was the below bar chart, showing which inventions from this century respondents thought might be gone relatively soon. Over 30 percent gave MP3 players and DVRs only 15 years before we’ll have moved on to something more helpful. Though what’s more helpful than a DVR?
One more little footnote from Lemelson-MIT: Just “… 16 percent (of respondents) see a downside to the proliferation of technology, noting that basic skills like grammar and spelling have slipped.
About the 16th annual Lemelson-MIT Invention Index: The index is an annual survey “that gauges Americans’ perceptions about invention and innovation. The 2012 Lemelson-MIT Invention Index survey was conducted by Kelton Research between December 9-15, 2011, using an Internet-based, multiple-choice format. The sample size of 1,000 respondents, ages 16-25, at the 95 percent confidence level would equate to + or – 3.1 percent margin of error had this been a random sample."
Images: Lemelson-MIT
