She did not typically begin from an abstract scientific question or from a theoretical framework.

She began from lived experience — from noticing something that didn’t work as well as it could, from feeling a specific frustration or inconvenience and thinking through what would address it.

This approach has a long and honorable history.

Many of the most commercially significant inventions in American history came not from formal scientific research programs but from individuals noticing specific problems and designing specific solutions.

The practical-problem approach to invention is democratic in a meaningful sense: it doesn’t require a laboratory or an advanced degree, only the capacity to observe carefully, think clearly, and persist through the long process of turning an idea into a working design.