Why Didn’t I Think of That? 101 Inventions that Changed the World

Anthony Rubino’s book “Why Didn’t I Think of That?” will make you feel dumb. Not in the same way reading James Joyce will, or hearing how by the age of five, Mozart had written three symphonies, two operas, and made the Kessel run in twelve parsecs.  Instead Rubino’s book describes the interesting history behind 101 famous, simple, and ingenious inventions (post-its, the hula hoop) that any of us could’ve easily thought of, but didn’t. It seems that some inventions were born out of necessity, and some were born from someone’s desire to twist a piece of wire so it holds sheets of paper together, sell over 100 trillion of them, and then go use the line “I invented the paper clip” out at bars.