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Human innovation sure is amazing. We’ve managed to figure out how to count, tell time, use (and abuse) nature’s resources to our advantage, and develop complex social structures… so complex that it boggles the mind to look back and try to imagine how we did it. Much like the way looking at your nose in the mirror for too long will make you feel like a surreal assortment of fleshy blobs, thinking about our longest-unquestioned customs will make you wonder just how our ancestors decided on that over the generations.

But who has the patience to think about such existential questions? Not you, you may think as you get up to get a snack, contemplating the impressive variety of salad toppings, sandwich fillings and sweets we’ve also managed to come up with as a civilization.

Here are some tweets cursing and praising the ingenuity of the "inventors" of the simplest concepts we take for granted. There may not be much historical accuracy to be found here, but sometimes it’s easier to blame some hypothetical guy.

#1

Guy-Who-Invented-Things

Dannmace Report

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chi-wei shen
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Autocorrect is always ducking around with us, may it's inventor rust in peas.

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There are a lot of funny stories throughout history of how these old inventions came about, but it’s hard to tell which ones are rumors and which ones are true sometimes. While there’s a widespread legend that potato chips were accidentally invented in 1853 by a cook who felt like he couldn’t please a customer who demanded improbably thin fries and sent out what he thought were ruined crisps in frustration, investigation of the historic restaurant that claims this legend turns up some inconsistencies.

Historians did manage to find a New York Herald article praising an unidentified woman who worked at the restaurant and had a knack for frying potatoes a few years earlier than that, so it may be more likely that this great idea came to a potato pioneer who knew exactly what she was doing.

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#13

Guy-Who-Invented-Things

KrangTNelson Report

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Non-New-Toni-An
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Mmmmm a bloody Mary with some salt, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco is soooooo good

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#15

Guy-Who-Invented-Things

ColdHeart_Prj Report

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Ilona
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At least in Dutch the name makes sense. Paraplu - derived from the French 'para pluie' which means 'against rain'. Which is exactly what an umbrella is used for.

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#17

Guy-Who-Invented-Things

mattbooshell Report

#20

Guy-Who-Invented-Things

llcoolstain Report

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Nicola Roberts
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Thomas Midgley Jr. Invented leaded petrol and CFCs in fridges/aerosols. It would be interesting if you could quantify his impact on our world.

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#22

Guy-Who-Invented-Things

HammerFist3 Report

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Kim Mahood
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

With cooking i always imagine someone accidentally dropped something in the fire/water/stood on some grains, tasted it and was like mmm!

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#26

Guy-Who-Invented-Things

msgwenl Report

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Samantha Lomb
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Its called I wish this really tough meat was edible, lets boil it to death and try to make it palatable by adding potatoes and other veg

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#29

Guy-Who-Invented-Things

KylePlantEmoji Report

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bryguy
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hmm the tree just isn't enough. What else do we have? Tinsel? Yup throw that on, what else? Pine cones? Yup.

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#30

Guy-Who-Invented-Things

goodbeanalt Report

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Narunaru
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Knowledge is power: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu%E2%80%93Arabic_numeral_system

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Note: this post originally had 46 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.