a thousand lightbulbs

Long drives at night are conducive to thought. (That is, as long as you make sure you drive safely as well ... ). Today, the thoughts that crossed my mind: Thomas Edison's (probably apocryphal) thousand lightbulbs -- the 999 lightbulbs that failed before the one that finally worked. It's one of the stories that students inevitably use in essays about failure and perseverance. i suspect it's because the story is still being used in secondary school textbooks today -- so students just recycle it because it's convenient and easy to remember. (The thought that it's most likely inaccurate doesn't seem to cross their minds ... )
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So many questions, really, from that one story. The easy moral about failure and perseverance is, perhaps, too easy. Is life ever that simple?
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Maybe the lesson in all this is that i need to think a bit less, and just enjoy the journey a bit more. i do like driving, after all.
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