What I learned from watching the film was more about Edisons personally than his life acheivements. I think that a lot of people can list off most of Edison’s greatest inventions and acheivements, but I am not quite sure as many people could deeply describe Edison as a human being. Edison was very hard headed, and stood strong in his beliefs. He was the person that defended his opinions and choices to the fullest extent and would argue for ages that he was correct. This is seen in the popular AC versus DC eletrical war. Westinghouse manufacured AC devices and could acheive stronger effects than Edison. But Edison would argue that his DC running devices are far safer. In the end we all know that AC turned out to be the current for the future, but Edison would keep his position his entire life.
Thomas Edison not only stood strong in his opinions, but also knew how to keep his team in a positive spirit. Edison was a master of moral. He knew early on the best way to keep his team working harder and longer was to keep there spirits high. He would let his men talk about how great they were doing, even if the work was not working as it was suppossed too. He would stop and sing songs with his men at the organ. The are examples of how Edison made sure that even though his team was highly worked, they did it out of pleasure.
Lastly to touch on Edison and the hats. I believe that Edison was truely a master of all four hats. This is why he is the greatest inventor in all of history. But if there is one hat that really stood out to me, its the artist. Edison manipulated and tweaked his inventions thousands upon thousands of times to finally come up with the solution he was looking for. His patience was incredible, and his minds eye could see all the posiblilities for solutions with amazing precision. Edison knew how to adapt in certain situations, and he knew how to be creative. To me, Edison might be one of the most creative thinkers we have known in our history to date.
