# Invention that needed no specialist knowledge yet was used by the masses.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invention-that-needed-no-specialist-knowledge-yet-was-used-by-the-masses/750858>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 1, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invention-that-needed-no-specialist-knowledge-yet-was-used-by-the-masses/750858 "2016-04-01T18:30:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invention-that-needed-no-specialist-knowledge-yet-was-used-by-the-masses/750858/41 "2016-04-05T21:19:32Z")

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I think the OP’s question could be summarised as “Does Kickstarter exist?”

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**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invention-that-needed-no-specialist-knowledge-yet-was-used-by-the-masses/750858/42 "2016-04-05T21:38:39Z")

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> [@Nansbread1](#):
>
> Which is a recent invention that fulfils the following criteria
> 
> Within the past 10 years  
> Needed no specialist knowledge by the inventor ie: did not need an engineering degree for eg or extensive knowledge of science.  
> Invention has appealed to the masses and made a lot of money for the inventor as a result.  
> Resulted in a successful patent
> 
> Anything?

There’s more than one way to skin a cat.  
There may be some some benefit or it may be a question of fashion.

The question of “received a patent yet isn’t worthy of receiving a patent.” is curious. This is like the Amazon “one click” patent … That Amazon invented the mouse button that results in an action. They say its specific to buying books… But the mouse button was invented for triggering any, one of of the set of ALL, actions. That is because its a software patent, and software patents don’t need to be of a specific internal operation ,its the result that matters and the patents people thought that mouse buttons were just for opening and closing windows, and putting the curser into a window,or for form submission, until then. Of course it was for any action … shoot a gun, change gear, lots of games had people doing stuff like buying books, just from a mouse click…

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