

The Pied Piper of Mucus - rglullis
http://www.popsci.com/bown/2009/innovator/pied-piper-mucus

======
gruseom
Never mind the idiotic title, this is a classic story about invention. His
breakthrough was accidentally figuring out that a _mouthpiece filter_ was more
important than the entire rest of his complicated machine, and it invalidated
the design he had been working on for 15 years. Can you imagine? Most people
would never allow themselves to notice something like that: the cognitive
dissonance would be way too intense.

"I felt so stupid because the answer was so simple" is a deeply creative, even
heroic statement.

