AAWSAP DIRD, Maverick Inventor Versus Corporate Inventor: Where Will the Next Major Innovations Arise, March 2010

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Bureaucracy: amount of general and administrative overhead to be put up with by the
inventor.
Capitalization: relative amount of funding available to the inventor for the specific
invention.
Education: level of education achieved by the inventor in the relevant fields of science
or engineering.
Business Sense: degree of business acumen associated with inventor.
Measurement: capability of the inventor to understand and properly use measuring
instruments.
Lab Skills: ability to show orderly development from original concept, keep proper lab
notes and communicate ideas to others.
Externals: inventor's interest in and capability of using external assistance-for
example, a university, including publishing.
Flexibility: ability to work on different sorts of projects, even when highly exotic.
Media Interest: interest in self-promotion and reliance on various popular (nonscientific)
media for guidance; this is more an indicator of the psychology of the inventor than of
his technical skills.
In a 2003 NASA tutorial on breakthrough propulsion (Reference 32), Millis describes the
division between "masters" and "pioneers" in the context of determining where the next
space propulsion breakthrough might arise. At the extreme end of the masters are the
"pedantic prudes" who cornsider that the process is already at the end-point of
advancements in the field. This classification is similar to the least motivated corporate
inventor. At the opposite end of the pioneers, he places the "pathological pundits" who
characterize themselves using phrases such as "My theory is great...! can't be wrong...If
you don't agree, you are part of the suppression conspiracy," and can thereby be
classified as Type 1 or 2 inventors. Millis also characterizes Type 1 and 2 inventors and
"nonrigorous enthusiasts" (Reference 33).
Conclusions
We can draw several conclusions from the comparisons in Table 2.
Maverick inventors of Types 1 and 2 score high in motivation and flexibility with little
bureaucracy, but in all other areas, they are lacking. Especially troubling for the present
scenario is the lack of education leading to substandard to nonexistent measurement
capabilities and laboratory skills, together with overreliance on media.
Types 3 and 4 also exhibit beneficial attributes relating to motivation, flexibility, and
bureaucracy, as well as their treatment of media. As far as the present scenario is
concerned, in all other attributes, Types 3 and 4 rank higher than their Type 1 and 2
counterparts. Their measurement skills could be improved, particularly in view of the
requirements of these new areas of energy and propulsion.
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