Patrick Collison, the CEO and co-founder of Stripe, maintains a list of people quickly accomplishing ambitious things together titled Fast. On the page, he talks about The Eiffel Tower (739 days), Boeing 747 (930 days), JavaScript (10 days), Git (17 days), The Empire State Building (410 days), and more.
It is all about timing when the overall knowledge (including science and technology) has reached a certain stage that it is possible to evolve to the next invention/technology and throughout the history the same idea/technology has been discovered by multiple people even though the history generally give credit to one person.
Calculus was invented by two mathematicians, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, in the 17th century. Both independently made discoveries that led to what we know now as calculus. Newton published his ideas about calculus in his book "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" in 1687. Leibniz published his research in the journal Acta Eruditorum in 1684. There has been a long-standing dispute over who should take credit for inventing calculus first.
Another example is the theory of evolution by natural selection was conceived independently by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the mid-19th century as an explanation for why organisms are adapted to their physical and biological environments.
There are several examples of being ahead of time, I will use a modern example and that is General Magic attempt to build a Smartphone. They were just way ahead of their time:
and when Apple came up with an iPhone their timing was right as technology was good enough to have a smartphone be built. Same is true for Electric Vehicles and AI now.
Those are good reasons to go fast, and this is another good summary, Matt. Well done.
It is all about timing when the overall knowledge (including science and technology) has reached a certain stage that it is possible to evolve to the next invention/technology and throughout the history the same idea/technology has been discovered by multiple people even though the history generally give credit to one person.
Calculus was invented by two mathematicians, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, in the 17th century. Both independently made discoveries that led to what we know now as calculus. Newton published his ideas about calculus in his book "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" in 1687. Leibniz published his research in the journal Acta Eruditorum in 1684. There has been a long-standing dispute over who should take credit for inventing calculus first.
Another example is the theory of evolution by natural selection was conceived independently by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the mid-19th century as an explanation for why organisms are adapted to their physical and biological environments.
There are several examples of being ahead of time, I will use a modern example and that is General Magic attempt to build a Smartphone. They were just way ahead of their time:
https://hyperallergic.com/500449/general-magic-documentary-smartphone-apple-silicon-valley/
and when Apple came up with an iPhone their timing was right as technology was good enough to have a smartphone be built. Same is true for Electric Vehicles and AI now.
Another way to think about "right time, right place" is carpe diem, i.e. capitalizing on the opportunity, such as Uber coming after iPhone + Maps.