[Ankesh]

The special something about Edison is - he "focused" on only "practical" inventions.

He was certainly not the most smartest - but he was the most focused inventor the world has ever seen.

My fav inventor award would go to R. Buckminster Fuller. What a colourful story! But he did spend 2-3 years developing the "perfect" 2-D map. And yet, we don't use his maps because the not-so-perfect maps are perfectly practical* for most people.

(*these 2-D maps are not practical for everyone though. Bucky claimed that the best and quickest way to beat Germany during WW2 would be from the north Arctic regions and not through Africa. But because of the maps most people use, the African route looks like its the shortest. A few thousand lives could have been saved if the planners had not used the faulty 2-D maps and planned an attack from the North.)