Best Inventions of 2018

One thing about being in Tokyo is my hotel room always has the latest copy of the Asian version of Time Magazine. I used to read it in my youth but stopped as an adult as I didn't see the need to pay for a subscription. When I do see a copy in my hotel, I will go through it and this time found a number of interesting articles. The one that made me stop browsing and focus on the entire article is the one on the 50 best inventions of 2018.

I think Time has a tough job trying to come up with the top inventions for any given year. What may seem groundbreaking to some is ordinary to others. Therefore it is not surprising that I disagree with some of their winners. For instance, they awarded a bicycling helmet with built-in headlights and turn signals. While that is a cool-sounding idea, it is actually a bad one. Bicycling helmets are disposable items that are not meant to be kept for more than a year or two, depending upon frequency of use. Embedding lights in the helmet double the cost. That means people are going to be reluctant to replace their helmet at proper intervals. Now if the helmet lights could be removed and put in a new helmet shell, that would be an innovative idea and deserving of an invention-of-the-year award.

While I disagree with some, there are a few inventions that I agree should be listed in this year's awards. I think my favorite is the roofing from 3M that fights smog pollution. This is probably important to me because of the recent fires in California reducing air quality to extremely unhealthy levels. I also know that I create a lot of pollution driving my car and flying all over the world. Doing something to right that wrong should be high on my priority list. When it comes time to put a new roof on my house, I will definitely look into pollution reducing shingles.

Going through Time's list of inventions for 2018 has been insightful. There are a lot of good ideas out there. Reading about them may spark new ideas. I know I came away with some thoughts on how to improve some of the things I use every day. You may too.