“Well, I’m a physicist, and I’ve taught physics. And my research interests were about measuring things and making things. And I’m also a historian of science. My interests there were about innovation, barriers to innovation. And I ran an organization here called The Inventors Council, helping inventors learn how to overcome barriers to innovation. Did that for 20 years. And I’m also a patent agent. Registered with the United States Patent Trademark Office, and I taught patent writing in law school.
[As a physicist], I measured things like specific heat at low temperatures of interesting materials. It’s hard to explain. It’s a long story. That’s the problem with science. You have to know a lot to learn the next thing. And it’s one of the problems with science writing. People don’t know how to build the context to understand what’s going on. It’s why it’s not so good. You gotta enjoy – really enjoy – what it’s about. I like the discipline of measuring things, and I like making things. Understanding how things work, making new things, making them better. I had a fun life. I still have a fun life.
And I’m retired now. I’m starting a – hosting an activity over at the cultural center for people my age. We’re just going to look at short videos, science and innovation videos, and talk about it. See what happens.
The greatest invention of all time is the delete key. Isn’t that a wonderful thing? Just push one key and get rid of something?
Most people have a start of an idea, and they don’t finish it. They think all they have to do is to have the raw idea. So that’s really, the biggest barrier – is not knowing how to finish it and turn it into a real product. You gotta learn to do it. You know, I guess from early on, I learned how to do it. I had cruel parents. I had to learn to be very independent. I had to learn to make my own way. So, you have to learn how to make it work. You learn the trade, learn the nuts and bolts, and you do it. You always gotta learn new stuff. That’s part of the fun of what I’m going to do at the cultural center – I get to learn a lot of new stuff. And in the process, you learn about yourself. There’s always things to learn about yourself.
I came to Chicago in about 1975. And I’ve moved into the Loop about 1983, 1984. Because we were working here. I was spending an hour, two hours a day going back and forth. So we moved, and we were happy. My wife had Alzheimer’s. And I cared for her for years. She died a couple years ago. That changed everything. It takes everything. It takes your work, her. I got nothing but a mountain of debt. But I can live. I’m clever, frugal. She was one of the great people of the world. It was a wonderful time.”
Visit Don’s website here.
Excerpt may be edited for clarity.