Does anybody here have an interest in macroeconomics?

[APeacefulWarrior]

All the evidence shows that most of the great discoveries and inventions happened outside the patent system and the inventors rarely got rich off of them.  Innovation seems to be something that humans do in spite of the incentive, because we're naturally creative.

Have you seen the "Connections" series of documentaries from the 80s-90s, by the historian James Burke? He presents one of the most cohesive and compelling models of how invention and innovation happens that I've seen, along with how it impacts society, based on many many examples from throughout history. The short short version is that what we consider "invention" is almost always the result of a mashup of two or more previous inventions from different subject matters or areas of interest. That, summarizing greatly, information flow is the great enabler of invention specifically because it brings together people from different disciplines and creates the catalytic environment, so to speak, for them to spot the potential for synergy in each other's ideas.

Also - like you said - that creation rarely happens because of a desire to get rich off the act of inventing. Inventions almost always came about as a result of a specific utilitarian need for the invention itself, and any riches came about later as a secondary effect. Although that changed somewhat in the late 19th/early 20th, mostly thanks to Edison and his creation of industrial-scale technology labs based around marketing their products. Invention has definitely gotten more market-focused in recent years, although one could also debate how much actual "invention" is happening despite all the many product releases.

If you can find the *original* Connections series, it's worth watching from start to finish. It actually presents a single cohesive thesis, built up over nine episodes, with the tenth serving as capstone. The other two series were a bit dumbed down, although not terrible. He also did a sort of spinoff called "The Day The Universe Changed" which is harder to find, but talks more about how society has changed as a result of technological or scientific revolutions.