I recall about 20 or so years ago I was enamored with having a standby gas driven Honda generator. Could afford one or justify one but just the same I thought they were cool and wanted one. Good enough reason for me.
I already had a horizontal shaft engine that I salvaged off an old rototiller.
In my imagination I drafted up how things would be built by using a car alternator (ya you heard that right). Creative but not very practical, yet it did work.
I didn't have a the proper coupler to drive the unit so I used a pulley set-up off the engine and the alternator keeping in mind the difference in ratios for pulley sizes and direction of rotation.
Then I found I had to use a small Lead acid battery just to excite the alternator. Good grief, what next?
Big, bulky and ugly it was my pride-n-joy with no practical use.
I later learned, it's not always what you build but the thought process involved to get there. It didn't take long before I tore it apart. I did it because I could. It was a thought about something that nagged at me and Ta-Da, there it is.
After I got my Ham Radio ticket I built many extremely odd-ball antennas for HF, some worked great, others, nothing special.
I worked at the cable company as an RF specialist so it tied my hobby and career as one. Couldn't get to work fast enough, most mornings.
The company gave me the freedom of creativity because most of my mad-scientist projects was about the technology which to them translated into money savings or a better way to do things.
You would not believe the antennas on my work truck as I had almost every RF toy in the truck. With company logo and always kept cleaned and waxed (inside and out) it was a wee bit intimidating to the unsuspecting. It sure kept the cable theft rate down which was revenue for the company. Doing things the way I did, kept the red-neck philosophy thoughts away.
Have you ever heard a joke at a camp fire or a party and THAT joke reminds you of another one that YOU could tell the group?
It's the same with innovations. While the one you're working on might not be the cat's meow,
parts of it could lead to your next brainstorm.
Not good enough to be an inventor but maybe an innovator I helped our industry do things better, but more importantly I had fun and it keeps the old brain cells active.
In my early years I worked in the service department (kind of a gateway job to prove yourself, prior to any promotion). In service I visited all kinds of homes and families. You would not believe half the people (customers) I met that lived on their couches with no ambition in life. Their living space was proof of that; dirty, dull and dingy. No motivation and poor grammar I just couldn't understand how some people just don't get it. That's ok, usually my next customer would of affluent status. Education and ambition was key for me.
I vowed to myself never to be like that and became self-motivated and maybe to an extreme. Since those early years I took on all kinds of night school courses always to better myself. Yet I don't regret a moment of my madness