Clive Sinclair

"his product from nature at large, and produces honey. (Or something like that. I probably failed whichever subject they told me that in). At any rate, Bacon always got his ideas from walking in the coun- tryside and observing nature, rather than sitting in his study. So get out and look at things, and when an idea comes, grab it, write it down, and play with it until it works. Don't sit and expect ideas to come. (Always bear in mind, though, that Bacon died of pneumonia, trying to invent frozen chicken.) ii) Everyday products sell Although it is harder to improve a mature product, if you succeed there is no need to create a market - something Clive Sinclair's C5, for example, could have done with. As before, thinking in a vacuum (forgive me) is not going to help. Try out current products in your own home, and make a list of things that you don't like about them - I found about twenty things wrong with my Hoover Junior at the first attempt. iii) New technology It may sound obvious, but many of the things that people write to me saying they have 'invented', interesting and useful though they are, are only modifications of existing technology, and can thus be copied by anyone under law. The thing about truly new technology is that it makes your invention patentable. And then no one can copy it."