# Is the day of the "Backyard Inventor" gone?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-day-of-the-backyard-inventor-gone/537610>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 28, 2010, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-day-of-the-backyard-inventor-gone/537610 "2010-04-28T07:54:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-day-of-the-backyard-inventor-gone/537610/61 "2010-05-03T20:40:41Z")

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> [@Crafter\_Man](#):
>
> Nowadays, the vast majority of inventions are made by people who are “in the industry.” A person who invents a new soda bottle, for example, will most likely work in the packaging industry, attend trade shows, etc.
> 
> It’s rare to find an inventor who is an industry outsider.

We’re all too smart these days. Technology that is even potentially useful lawyers up at a very early stage and becomes company secrets. And anything you could figure out by independent puttering in this era of massively funded and manned R & D probably isn’t useful at all.

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