Not relevant.
> and I wasn't employed by Apple.
Huh? Lots of people not employed by apple invent things.
> So, it really isn't fair to hold me responsible for a problem I didn't have.
"You" wasn't directed at just you. It was directed at the thousands of people who walked right by that problem.
Like I said, hindsight, just like I had with tetris.
> Given the constraints, given the hardware, given the opportunity and incentive,
Why do you think that being given something is relevant?
Some folks have "time machines" (Bill Joy reference). They get to invent in that context.
> Well, the first person to run into the problem, to them goes the spoils!"
That's pretty much how it works. Folks with domain knowledge have an advantage. So do people who think creatively. And so on.
> heavily encourages either wasteful flailing about in the problem space wasting resources
No, it doesn't.
> We need to be free to attempt solutions to problems regardless of who else has worked on them and to what success.
You are "free to attempt solutions". You just have to succeed first.
> You made some statement seeming to imply that one must both discover and solve a problem
No I didn't. I said that some inventions address known problems while others both discover the problem and a solution.
I pointed out that lots of us work on the first kind of invention, but the second kind is just as valid.
Not relevant.
> and I wasn't employed by Apple.
Huh? Lots of people not employed by apple invent things.
> So, it really isn't fair to hold me responsible for a problem I didn't have.
"You" wasn't directed at just you. It was directed at the thousands of people who walked right by that problem.
Like I said, hindsight, just like I had with tetris.
> Given the constraints, given the hardware, given the opportunity and incentive,
Why do you think that being given something is relevant?
Some folks have "time machines" (Bill Joy reference). They get to invent in that context.
> Well, the first person to run into the problem, to them goes the spoils!"
That's pretty much how it works. Folks with domain knowledge have an advantage. So do people who think creatively. And so on.
> heavily encourages either wasteful flailing about in the problem space wasting resources
No, it doesn't.
> We need to be free to attempt solutions to problems regardless of who else has worked on them and to what success.
You are "free to attempt solutions". You just have to succeed first.
> You made some statement seeming to imply that one must both discover and solve a problem
No I didn't. I said that some inventions address known problems while others both discover the problem and a solution.
I pointed out that lots of us work on the first kind of invention, but the second kind is just as valid.