[mylife]

This guy was so much more brilliant than Edison.
In some regards, Edison was a punk and a copycat.

[hinckley buzzard]

His description of Edison searching through hundreds of straws was literally accurate. Edison did just that to find a suitable filament for his light bulb. Tesla, by comparison, invented AC and WiFi decades ago.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

This guy was so much more brilliant than Edison.

In some regards, Edison was a punk and a copycat.

But a better salesman and businessman. Tesla was a genius - but the world we live in was mostly built by mediocre minds filled with drive and focus, not by troubled geniuses.

[TexasRepublic]

“This guy was so much more brilliant than Edison. In some regards, Edison was a punk and a copycat.”

Tesla was an errant genius and brilliant, mostly in an abstract way. Yes, his concepts for A/C power systems (motors, dynamos, transformers) were commercially realized, but what else outside of that field? His idea for wireless power distribution [Tesla coil] that everyone swoons over is still impractical even 100 years later because of the rate that radiant power diminishes relative to distance.

Edison spawned a broad range of industries that still affect our lives a century later. He is credited with over 1,000 inventions, and among the best was his concept of a research and development laboratory. Edison was empirical yes, but he was a pragmatist. Who goes farther, the dreamer or the doer? “Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration”. Edison’s lab was collaborative, nothing wrong with that. Most “invention” is a progression of other’s ideas. He guided research along promising lines, regardless where the idea originated. There are very few “bolt from the blue” inventions.

Tesla died broke, obscure and crazy. Edison died the opposite. So, who’s the genius, practically speaking?