When Lightning Strikes Twice (Or Thrice) - Input Origins #18

Updated: 20 hours ago

Great interfaces rarely arrive as a single breakthrough. They tend to appear more than once.

Two inventors filing the same patent on the same day.

Engineers in different labs solving the same control problem, without ever speaking.

Entire teams, continents apart, arriving at the same idea at the same time.

At first, it feels like coincidence. But it isn’t.

When a problem becomes clear enough, the solution starts showing up everywhere.

Welcome back to Input Origins, our monthly look at how humans control technology.

This time: When Lightning Strikes Twice (Or Thrice).

A short look at how the best input ideas don’t belong to one mind—they emerge when the world is finally ready for them.

Input Origins is published on the last Thursday of every month.

Series editor: Ariel Amar

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