Latest / Ruining the Workplace Podcast / S2 E3 Mary Anderson Ruins Foul Weather Driving
Transcript
- Jaden: I'm Jaden Danielle: and I'm Danielle. Jaden: and this is the Ruining the Workplace podcast. Hello. Hi Danielle. I'm Danielle: Hello. Hey, how's it going? Jaden: it's good. It's a sunny end of September and it's supposed to be like eighty degrees next week. I know. Danielle: Whoa. That's wild. It's not sunny here, but it is like 76 degrees right now. Jaden: Wow. Danielle: it's it's like it's 72, sorry. It's gonna get up to 74. it's like moody out, you know, it's like cloudy. It's not rainy. It was rainy yesterday, but it's like the perfect fall. Maybe a little too hot, but otherwise. Jaden: Yeah. I I really I really wanna wear my cozies. Like my sweatshirts Danielle: Yeah. Jaden: and my sweaters. I actually just wanna go sweater shopping. I think that's what it is. And I keep not doing it because I get too hot during the day. Danielle: I know, I know. Yeah. We had a there were a couple days last week where it was cold enough. I'm like, ooh, I'm gonna bundle up. But then as the day goes on, you're like, I am sweating buckets. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jaden: Yeah, yep, totally. and while we're sweating buckets, welcome back to the Ruining the Workplace podcast. Hi, we are back for another episode. Danielle: Hello. We are back again. Jaden: We're back again. but I do wanna say welcome to Bob, our newest member of Ruining the Workplace. Hi, Bob. Danielle: Hello, Bob. Welcome. Meow. that was my impression of Bob. Bob adopted Jaden: I love it. Hi Bob. Danielle: me yesterday. he just showed up at my house and he's a keeper. So there's Bob. Jaden: so Danielle: he is about 12 weeks old. He's a little kitty, and yeah, I don't know where he came from. He's super friendly and like not scared at all. Which I was surprised by. and is part of the reason why I'm like, Yeah, we can keep him, it's fine. Jaden: Mm-hmm. Danielle: my kiddo named him Bob. so that's that. Yeah, Bob and Becky Karen. Yeah, they're go they're Jaden: Bob. Bob and Becky Karen's album will be coming out. It's their country collaboration. Danielle: going through some stuff right now. So, when Becky Karen stops being such a bitch, they'll probably head into the studio. But she's really on a high horse Jaden: Well, you know, the best Danielle: right now. Jaden: the best music and art comes from pain. So we're just building content at this point. Danielle: I yeah. Yeah. All of Bob's songs are gonna like, Why are you so mean to me? She's gonna be like, I hate you, Bob. Jaden: Found you and hate me. Danielle: She'll get over it. I have been doing a lot of reading. I've never had multiple Jaden: Ooh. Danielle: cats. I've always been a single cat owner when I had cats. So I have been doing a lot of research on how to get them to like slowly acclimate to each other and get used to all of that. Bob doesn't seem concerned at all. I think he's he's totally into it. He's like, Yeah, I have a new friend. Jaden: Well he's he's an aloof male. Danielle: He really i mean, yes, a thousand percent. He really is. He's like, Hey girl, let's be best friends and she's like like step back, Bob. Yeah, she's Jaden: No. Smart. Danielle: you know it, she's appropriately cautious for this new interloper that has entered our lives. So I Jaden: Uh-huh. Danielle: get it. yeah, that's very exciting and and it's just it's very surprising. Yeah, it's like Jaden: Mm-hmm. Danielle: very unexpected and I Becky Karen hasn't been here that long and I thought that that was enough because man, she can get wild at about 4 a.m. So she I don't know why she Jaden: Mm, yeah. Mm-hmm. Danielle: decides that that's the time to like jump at my arms when I'm sleeping, but that's Jaden: god. Danielle: her time. So why not add a kitten to the mix, you know? Like, why not? I have what's Jaden: Yeah, I mean you have chaos. Why not add a little more chaos? Danielle: what's more chaos? My hope is that they can mellow each other out. Jaden: Give them a common enemy to chase. So give them like something that they can both be like like I noticed that our cats that Danielle: I mean I have the red dot. Like Jaden: might work. They do seem to my cats seem to rally around that. They also collectively will get together to battle like a moth. If a moth flies in the house, they all are like, Okay, let's work on this as a team. But that's as far as it goes. Danielle: sure. Yeah. I love that teamwork. Yeah. I just want you guys to just be a pile of cuddles. Jaden: They will. Danielle: Let's get there. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Anyway, what's new with you? Jaden: Well. I don't have any new cats, but I want one. What's new with me? I got new glasses yesterday, so my eyes are adjusting. Danielle: Heck yeah, you did. Super cute. Jaden: They're metal frames with nose pads, which is such a huge leap for me. So I'm trying to decide. Danielle: Yeah. Very different. They look cute. I like Jaden: Thank you. Thank you very much. Other than that, I am just yeah, coming out of the dark a little bit, I think. It's been a weird year, but I feel like I'm Danielle: Yeah. Yeah. Jaden: returning to reality. So that's good. And yeah. Danielle: Nice. That is good. Yeah. Jaden: Yeah. But what I'm really excited about is this fantastic lady that we're gonna learn about today. Danielle: Mm. I'm very excited. Let's do it. Jaden: Let's go. Okay. all right, well, let me set the scene. I would like to have you picture New York City, okay, around wintertime nineteen two, nineteen three. All right, so it's cold, it's r rainy, Danielle: Mm. Jaden: snowy, whatever. And thirty-six-year-old Mary Anderson is riding an electric streetcar. And as I mentioned, it's s probably snowing, sleep whatever. But she's freezing her tits off and the That just came out. Anyway. Danielle: I love it. I wa it's unexpected, but I'm here for it. Jaden: I bring you the unexpected. She's Danielle: That's true. Jaden: freezing her ladies off. And the streetcar windshield is becoming really obscured by winter weathering. And that obviously means that the driver of said streetcar is having a hard time seeing the road. Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: And fast forward months, Mary had designed something recognizable as the modern windshield wiper. Danielle: Aww no way Jaden: Yeah, so We are gonna talk about Mary Anderson, one of the first people to patent a design of the what we know as the windshield wiper. We don't even think about it these days. We just use it. Danielle: Yeah. Jaden: But it's funny to think there was a time before, like so okay, let me get into who Mary is and then we'll talk about like what prompted all of this. So we're gonna start back on February 19, 1866, when Mary Elizabeth Anderson was born. And she was born in Green County, Alabama. And sadly, her father died when she was four. But left an estate to her that really, I mean, it just gave her all the financial support that she was really gonna need, along with her sister Fanny and her mother Rebecca. Danielle: Becky Karen. Jaden: Becky Karen. i I just wanna also say that she was left this fortune that took care of her family, and there are some arguments that say that like she was a Just a penniless inventor when she came up with this design, but I don't think that was true. there's a lot of like sensationalized story, like, my gosh, she did this patent Danielle: yeah. Jaden: and they just ignored her, and it was all because she was a woman and men stole her idea. It's not like that. It's really Danielle: Right. Jaden: more that like she had to have some sort of financial independence that was going on, and that informed how she operated later in life. So Anyway, in 1889, Mary, her mother, and her sister Fanny all moved to Birmingham, Alabama. And Birmingham was booming economically at this point. It's not sort of the sleepy southern, like slow draw we think of kind of today. the city was really exploding into existence because of iron and steel industry. And their family arrived during a period of like pretty rapid development and got involved with something that was not like a conventional career path for women in eighteen eighty nine and that was real estate development. Yeah. Danielle: interesting. Jaden: Yeah, Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: So her family financed and built the Fairmont Apartments, which were in Birmingham, and Mary would eventually manage this property. So I I mean, these are pretty remarkable things for her family to be Danielle: Yeah. Jaden: financing, and then she's actually in charge of this place, right? So this was not enough for her. She was like, I could do more. So in 1893, she was about 27 at this time. She moved to Fresno, California, where she operates a cattle ranch and a vineyard. Yeah. So I know, right? Like her resume. Danielle: Whoa that's a big shift. Wow. Jaden: So her resume at this point is real estate developer, landlord, rancher, vineyard operator, and at some point will be future windshield wiber inventor, right? Danielle: That's crazy. Jaden: Yeah. She did end up going back to Birmingham around the end of the 1890s to help care for an ailing ant. And this is just a quick side quest on the ant, right? So the ant herself has according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, she arrived with trunks, like the you know, big the big boxes or whatever that Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: She would not allow anyone to inspect. Like she kept them under lock and key. No one is ever allowed to open them but her. So after she Danielle: What is that? Jaden: dies, the family discovered that for realsies, the the trunks contained like gold and jewelry and like fortune. Danielle: my god. Jaden: Yeah. And so they end up selling all this stuff, which again gives them this like wealth, right? So I know. Danielle: That's crazy. That's wild. Don't go in my don't look through my bags. Jaden: Down through Yeah, because it's legit full of gold and jewelry. So Mary Danielle: My God. Jaden: has money, independence, business experience, and apparently now a mysterious treasure chest chest aunt that has allowed Danielle: Hehehehe Jaden: her to increase her wealth. Danielle: my god. Jaden: So she's got a great start. You know, she's living comfortable. And now we are going to New York. Sometime around nineteen two or early nineteen three in the winter, get back to where we were picturing earlier. She's on an electric streetcar. It's bad weather. You know she looked fashionable as hell. And she's watching the streetcar driver struggling through the wind to see through the windshield. And people of the time describe opening vehicle windows, sticking their heads out, sometimes stopping entirely to like manually clear accumulating pr precipitation. So like on the streetcar, the streetcar Danielle: my god. Jaden: stops, driver has to get out and like literally shovel off the windows. And so she's thinking, Okay, I'm I I actually was in a car and the same thing happened. The driver had to like take his hand and wipe it this is crazy. Wh and she's like, I need to fucking Danielle: Isn't that ugh? Jaden: be somewhere. Like this is an inconvenience for me. And that is how road rage was invented. Danielle: I have places to be. Right? That's really what she invented. No. But how weird would Jaden: Yeah. Danielle: it be? Like, man, we get some like crazy snow here and I cannot imagine Jaden: Right, ice. Danielle: having to like pull over and be like, hold on. Like Jaden: Exactly. so she probably wasn't getting road rage, but you know, she was probably getting a little bit of annoy and maybe rid rage, yeah, I don't know. She wants to be somewhere and she's getting stuck. Danielle: Maybe mid rage. I think that's fair. If she had some rage, yeah. Right. Jaden: Why couldn't you clean the windshield from inside the vehicle? Is the question that she poses. She's like, I don't this is so crazy. We need something to help us here, right? Okay. Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: So she enjoys the rest of her visit to New York City. she didn't forget about this minor inconvenience on the streetcar in New York once she returned to Birmingham. She went home, she started thinking about this more deeply, started actually developing this idea. She turned her idea into sketches, which show a mechanism that was it was very simple, beautifully simple. And it's essentially outside the window is an arm carrying like rubber cleaning blades similar to what we would see today, but just you know, obviously rudimentary. And inside the car is a lever. And the concept is move the lever, the external arm sweeps across the glass. Problem solved. And the sketch went down to the inner workings, like springs maintaining the pressure between the rubber and the window so the blade actually clean the surface. And Danielle: Wow. Jaden: you may be asking, well what happens when it's sunny? That's a dumb question. Danielle: I was I actually had a different question, but tell me what happens when it's sunny. Jaden: I will, 'cause Mary had already anticipated this line of questioning. Okay. The cleaning apparatus could be removed when it wasn't needed so it wouldn't interfere with the appearance of the vehicle. Yeah. Danielle: my gosh. So do you just clip it on when it's like storm's coming, we better put our windshield wiper on. Hmm. That's cool. Jaden: Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. So her design is quite thoughtful and her patent I'm jumping ahead. But her patent that she will be applying for momentarily, it it really identifies like specific design requirements, including again, how to maintain pressure so that the cleaning mechanism actually works on the glass. So well, Danielle: does she know all of this? Like Jaden: she I she draws it out and then she basically has like a model made. that sort of sh allows testing of it. So Danielle: Okay. That's cool. Jaden: yeah. So at this point she's like, Ooh, I'm gonna do a patent on this. So on June eighteenth, nineteen three, Mary files her patent application. And five months later, on November tenth, the US patent office granted patent number seven four three eight zero one for a quote window cleaning device. Danielle: Ooh. Jaden: And so she ends up owning the rights to this invention for seventeen years. And then this is where the part where capitalism comes on and like fucks everything up. Because I love that you mention Yeah, right? Totally. I Danielle: Henry Ford called her up and was like, I'm taking this. This is mine now. Jaden: love that you mentioned that because we I am gonna mention the Ford company momentarily. But Danielle: Mm. Jaden: so at this point she's like, Let's monetize this bitch, right? She's like, Danielle: Hell yeah. Jaden: And so she apparently tried to find someone to help her commercialize this invention. Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: And the most important surviving evidence of all of this is a letter dated June 20th, 1905, from the Canadian firm Dinning and Ecks Eckenstein. And this is actually a rejection letter. And the original rejection lives this this lives in the Birmingham Public Library, which is kind of cool. You can actually go see this letter. Mm-hmm. Danielle: that is cool. Jaden: And the firm basically concluded that it was too bland. They were like, Danielle: What? Jaden: they don't really believe that this patent had sufficient commercial value to justify taking on its sale. Danielle: wow. Jaden: They they weren't like this isn't technically possible or someone else already invented this or we tested it and it didn't work. They were just like no one's gonna Danielle: It's just Jaden: buy this. Danielle: that's boring. That's that's so wild to me. Like, nah, it's not cool and not interesting, I don't know. But it's so practical. Are you kidding me? Like No. Jaden: Mm-hmm. Yeah, no one's no one's gonna want this. Right. Like we don't even think about it today, right? And so yeah, so she's like, okay. And from here the history does get a little bit gray. And in a Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: lot of places you can read that she spent years shopping around her invention trying to get people to buy in, and she was just repeatedly rejected by like automobile Danielle: Yeah. Jaden: companies. But there just isn't actually strong evidence that there's just anecdotal evidence. Danielle: Okay. Jaden: So the referring back to the Encyclopedia of Alabama again, it states that that firm Dinning in Eckenstein was really Danielle: Mm. Jaden: the only documented attempt that she took to market it. So Danielle: interesting. Jaden: she has descendants. Like she has one great great niece that says later, she tried to interest manufacturing firms, but still Danielle: Mm. Jaden: no takers. And unfortunately there's just not a lot of like paper trail to show if she had really pursued any others. But Danielle: Yeah, that's wild. it's hard because if we don't, you know we don't know exactly what happened all the time. But Jaden: Mm-hmm. Danielle: if she didn't go to anybody else, that's very sad. Jaden: Mm-hmm. Danielle: and it's very stupid if she did and they were all like boring pass. It's like Jaden: No. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Danielle: I don't it can't Jaden: Ha ha Danielle: 'cause I just keep thinking about how pissed I would be if I Jaden: Right. Danielle: had to stop the car. Or you know what I mean? Like, Jaden: yes. Danielle: I am an aggressive windshield wiper user. Like, I it's like I'm not so bad that like Jaden: Ha ha. Danielle: a little sprinkle and I have to have it on high. But most Jaden: Yeah. Danielle: of the time I do have it run on high. And I'm like, Jaden: Ha ha Danielle: I want it to be as clear as it can be. I don't want to have to like, you know, and if there's ice or if it's snowing, that's just a whole other thing. I'm like, I would almost just not I'd rather just not leave my house, maybe, than have to like go out and deal with that shit. You know what I mean? Or like put me in Jaden: Yeah, hell no. Danielle: a put me in a sleigh or something, I guess. I don't like with a roof. A horse and Jaden: Horse and buggy. Yeah. Danielle: buggy. It's fine. I don't know. It's super weird. And then I think about like there's where I live, there's a large Amish community and Jaden: yeah. Danielle: their buggies drive by all the time. And they have windshield wipers. That's it's probably closer to her original patent, actually, like the you know, Jaden: I would imagine so. Danielle: they're doing it inside or whatever, but I'm like, they get it and they don't even use lights, you know, like or actual cars, right? Like, Jaden: Or c actual cars. Yeah. Danielle: I don't know, it's so wild to me, like oftentimes and I see this too, you know, a little bit in like the work that I do or like the work that I historically Jaden: Mm. Danielle: have done around UX and like looking at what are those micro moments that can really make somebody's life easier. And this is a perfect example Jaden: my gosh. Danielle: of that. Of like, it's not the sexiest thing. Sure. Maybe like being able to pick a different color on your model T would be cooler. But like this is infinitely more useful and valuable. Jaden: That's that is that is a fabulous point. I love that you brought that up because I actually have something about that in my notes about how like this is not a situation where obviously this is hundred plus years ago at this point, but she's not thinking about this in terms of improving a technology that already exists or the Danielle: Right. Jaden: technology that is that needs like an add-on. She's like, Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: These people are wasting their time. How do we solve it for the people that Danielle: Right. Right. Jaden: really stuck with me as I was reading Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: through this. So I and I knew that you would resonate with that as well, just given your role. That's so cool. Yeah. Danielle: my God, yeah. Yeah. Like how can we just make this a better experience for people? And it's not even like she's just now starting to like, okay, well let's see if we can sell this. But it's ultimately Jaden: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Danielle: like this would make it better for so many Jaden: Right. Danielle: people. Jaden: Yeah. Yes. So at this point in the story, I can see where some folks might be like, Well, did she actually invent the windshield wipe windshield wiper since it never like was commercially acclaimed or anything like that? And so Danielle: And those people can get right the fuck out. Move along. Anyway. I Jaden: So the answer is sort of, right? Like she's widely credited Danielle: Jaden, I'm over here like wholeheartedly backing her up, and you're like, yeah, sort of. So don't get too excited. So people can stay, I guess. And like, fine. Jaden: I'm like, yeah, fifty percent. Can you just take it down about fifty percent? Danielle: We'll have a healthy discussion. Whatever. Okay, Jaden: Well. Danielle: so sort of. Jaden: Sorta. Danielle: No, I don't wanna no, I don't want to even want to guess. Jaden: So she's widely credited with inventing the first effective or operational windshield wiper, which I think is a distinction. Like there's a nuance there, right? But she was not the only Danielle: Mm, sounds important. Jaden: she was not the only person thinking about the problem. At Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: least three other inventors were pursuing windshield cleaning devices around the same time, including her, a Danielle: Okay. Mm-hmm. Jaden: man named Robert Douglas, and an Irish invention name invention, Irish inventor named John John Abjohn. Do with that what you will. Danielle: Ooh. John Apton. Jaden: But John Abjohn actually developed a system involving brushes, or wipers that could be operated manually or mechanically, which I think is the early version of automatic, right? And Danielle: yeah, yeah. Jaden: so It's not that her like historical importance isn't that, you know, she was the first idea to have, wow, we need to be clearing this glass. It was more about the practicality of Danielle: Yeah. Jaden: what she got patented because it was the first to sort of accomplish like being ip operable inside of a vehicle and then recognizably related to a the mechanism that followed, which is the sort of windshield wiper that we know today, right? Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: so again, she was the first effective designer. And that's th Danielle: I love that. Jaden: I think that's a fairly defensible claim. But here is where kind of like market timing really screws our friend Mary. So when she files Danielle: Mm. Jaden: her patent in nineteen three, automobiles were still like emerging technology and Danielle: Right. Jaden: as you said earlier, Danielle: Motor Company. Jaden: the Ford Motor Company itself had only been incorporated in like June of that same year, so nineteen three. Yeah, so Danielle: yeah. S okay. Jaden: it was like she's inventing for a world that was basically about to like explode. Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: And They did. Automobiles hit the market, road infrastructure expanded. the concept of enclosed passenger compartment vehicles was becoming really common, which meant windshields were now common. and suddenly, my god, it rains, holy shit, right? What are we gonna do? Right. If only so mechan Danielle: no, what are we gonna do? If only someone had invented some kind of wiping mechanism. Where's John Apjon when you need him? Jaden: Where's John? He's back in Ireland. but yeah, mechanical windshield cleaners, as they're calling them, began appearing on automobiles during the following years. And her patent, meanwhile, was like basically just ticking time bomb Danielle: No. Jaden: that just fizzles out. So nineteen three, nineteen four, nineteen all the way up until nineteen twenty. Her seventeen-year patent protection expired. and of course during that time someone was successful in being commercially recognized and two years later Cadillac began installing windshield wipers as a standard equipment on their their cars. Fucking two years. So Danielle: Fancy. It that's crazy. Jaden: now this doesn't mean that Cadillac stole the idea. and just because the patent expired, but it does have more to do with the continued development by Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: the other inventors. 'Cause it sounds like she did the thing, she submitted the thing and then she was like, Okay, on to the next thing kind of. Danielle: sure. Did she have like other inventions? Or she was like, Well, I tried that, let's see what else I can do. Jaden: No, not really. But Danielle: Okay. Jaden: I just wanna I'm gonna throw a little curveball, 'cause surprise, there's another woman in this story. Danielle: Mm. Jaden: I'd like you to meet Charlotte Brigwood, or Bridgewood. I'm not exactly sure how you say that. Danielle: Hello, Ms. Bridgewood. Jaden: But let's just call her Charlotte. So in 1917, Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: Charlotte filed for a powered windshield cleaning system. Her patent described a mechanism that could clean vehicle windshields without requiring the driver to do like a manual move. Like they don't Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: have to turn a knob or whatever. So the technical progression of all this looks like several people attacking this problem. Mary creates an important early and practical design. other inventors continue to iterate, and then the automobile industry eventually standardizes it. So going back to Charlotte, she just kind of contributed this. That's really awesome. The funny thing about Charlotte, too, while it's kind of cool, is like she was the mother of Florence Lawrence, who was an early movie star, also associated with automotive inventions. Yeah. But Danielle: wow. Jaden: like to point out at this point women could not yet vote. So you know. Danielle: Yeah. And they're over here like making very important inventions. Jaden: so back to our girl Mary. She did not spend her life racking her brain and being consumed by the injustice of it all. Danielle: Mm. Jaden: She went back to Birmingham, continued to manage property, and she did not Do anything with it. She watched automobiles become ubiquitous, windshield wipers Danielle: Mm. Jaden: become ordinary, and she never filed any other patents or made any significant money from this invention. And Danielle: Hmm. Jaden: on June 27, 1953, she died at her home in Mont Eagle, Tennessee, at the age of 87. But What's what is so common is the posthumous recognition that so many people achieve just because they die. So Danielle: yeah. Jaden: her local newspapers recognized the invention after she died. And the Birmingham Public Library Danielle: Mm. Jaden: preserves clippings with headlines including Windshield Wiper Inventor Miss Mary Anderson dies. So that's local recognition and national recognition Danielle: Yeah. Jaden: took a lot longer and in twenty eleven, one hundred and eight years after receiving her patent and also fifty-eight years after her death, okay, Mary Anderson was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Danielle: I mean that's cool But it sucks so much that it's like so far after the fact. Like, come on. Jaden: I know. Yeah. I know. And I you know, one of the lingering questions, and I think I probably just need to do a little deeper research but then on the other hand, maybe not, because the a lot of the stuff I see on her is like short form and it's very Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: much the story that I just told you and not a lot more. Danielle: Right. Jaden: I I just have to wonder, like, did she Like what is it that kept her from continuing to pursue it? Like why didn't she Danielle: Yeah. Jaden: go after it? Was she like, it's a great idea. I don't really want to spend time on this. It's not my passion. I wanna do other things. Like 'cause it seemed like Danielle: Yeah. I do wonder Jaden: she was really into the concept of real estate development and sort of doing that life Danielle: Right. Jaden: before and then she encountered something. She was like, here's a thing, maybe, I don't know. Danielle: Well, yeah, and I wonder if, like, you know, she's obviously a woman of some means. So it's not Jaden: Mm-hmm. Danielle: like she had to figure this out to survive. It was almost like Jaden: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Danielle: a side hustle or a hobby in a way. And like, well, I guess Jaden: Yes. Danielle: if they're gonna keep me out because I'm a woman or they don't think it's a good idea, I don't need right. Jaden: Maybe I just don't need to go there. Danielle: I don't need to keep pushing for it. I wonder if that factored in and like I imagine that she was busy with her real Jaden: Yeah. Danielle: estate work anyway. You know what mean? Jaden: Well, I I did wanna share a couple of links so you can actually see her patent if you go to patents.google Danielle: Mm. Jaden: dot com and then I have a link, I'll put it in the show notes, and then one of the articles that I read for this I just I mostly just put it in here because I liked the headline, which was Alabama woman stuck in tr New York City traffic in nineteen two invented the windshield wiper. So there's that minor inconvenience. I know. Danielle: That poor Alabama woman stuck in traffic. She went to the big city and it was a nightmare. Jaden: Yeah, yeah. Thanks to WGBH for that headline. So yeah, that is what Danielle: That's funny. That's funny. Jaden: I have on Mary Anderson and her invention of the windshield Danielle: That is awesome. Jaden: wiper. And as we go into the cold weather months, you can just think Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: about that and yeah, next time you get into your car and turn your windshield wipers, you can say, Hey, thanks, Mary. Thanks, Mary. Yeah. Danielle: Right, like, thanks, Mayor. Appreciate you. That was really interesting. Thank you for sharing that. That was very Jaden: Yes. Danielle: cool. Jaden: Yeah, and one of the things I was thinking about, just like more specific to Mary in this situation, was that like she's an outsider to the industry that she's sort of inventing for, right? Like she's not she Danielle: Mm. Jaden: doesn't work within the automotive industry. And Danielle: Right. Jaden: So she wasn't it's it's like a dual-edged thing. Like sh she herself was not trapped in the assumptions of the automotive industry as it was being formed at the time. Cause she was not part of it. She just had an idea to solve a problem for the people using cars or whatever. But then there's this like concept of innovation, sometimes called like You've probably heard of it, functional fixedness, where it makes people in the system unable to see change. So Danielle: sure. Jaden: they're like, well, why would we want that? That's such why would anyone Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: buy this? But they're just like stuck in their own way because they're already Danielle: Right. Jaden: so exposed to it. And I think to me, that was why this made an interesting topic. for the workplace conversation because I think a lot of or I think a lot of organizations or companies are also really bad at doing that. Like we get stuck in our ways, we don't want to change. Danielle: Absolutely. Mm-hmm. Jaden: It's leadership is you know deciding and that's it. And outsiders are not welcome to that. And they just Danielle: Right. Right. Jaden: can't see things that are directly in front of you. So Danielle: Mm-hmm. Jaden: I just think that's such a Danielle: Yeah. Jaden: an interesting paradox as it relates to this story. Danielle: It really is. And it makes me think about how, you know, sometimes now the project work that we Jaden: Mm. Danielle: work on will be like, let's get somebody from a different team to come in just to get that fresh perspective. No, it's not always Jaden: Mm-hmm. Danielle: forefront and and I would say a lot of times in organizations or just people in general, you do see like, well, this is how we do it. This is how Jaden: Mm-hmm. Danielle: we do it. We're very insular. We're keeping it here. You're not in the club. This is Jaden: Yeah. Danielle: how we do it. But it is so valuable to get that outside perspective because you are living things day in, day out. You don't see the problems. Or you create Jaden: Mm-hmm. Danielle: these workarounds. And you're like, well, that that's fine. I figured out a way to work around it. But you wouldn't have to if you had an outsider come in and give their perspective of like, hey, have you thought about this? Well, thank you for that story. let's transition to our tip of the week, shall we? Jaden: Let's tip. Danielle: we're coming up on, you know, the the season has j fall has just started, right? It's last week was the first day of fall. Jaden: Yes. Mm-hmm. Danielle: we're coming into a new month now, at least when we're recording this. Jaden: Mm-hmm. Danielle: so it's just it's kind of a season of change. It was my birthday. You know, there's just a lot going on. I my tip of the week is to take a look at your space, like Jaden: Hm. Danielle: your workspace, and think of two things that you could remove or move. Jaden: Ooh. Danielle: I've had this on my to-do list all week this week of like clean my desk. Because it will make me feel better and I know that. And I that's how I want to transition into the next month, into the next season. doesn't have to be a complete overhaul, but look at like what Jaden: Mm-hmm. Danielle: are two things you might move or remove from your space. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Good. Yeah. Thank you. Jaden: I love it. Yes. I'm gonna do that today. I'm doing it right after this. I love it. Thanks. That's a very good tip. Yay. That's the thing. I love the idea of bringing in the new season by just like refreshing a little bit. That's awesome. Hey. Danielle: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I I feel like it sets a good tone, you know. Clear your Jaden: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Danielle: space, clear your mind. So yeah, Jaden: Love it. Danielle: there we go. Jaden: Well, I think that we have ruined the workplace once again. Danielle: Think we've ruined automobiles for sure. Yeah. Foul, Jaden: We have certainly ruined foul weather driving. Danielle: foul weather driving. Anyway. Thanks, Jaden. This was really great. Okay. Bye. Jaden: Anyway, well, till next time. Yeah, thanks. See ya later.