Scholarship on innovation backs up this perspective. It turns out that the entrepreneur as a "great man" falls into the myth of technical innovation in which individuals are responsible for progressive leaps in technology. Rather than a "great man" with a eureka moment who single-handedly invents something game-changing, most innovations involve parallel developments, uncredited contributors, failures and starts, and lengthy social histories, all of which make for a far less exciting narrative.

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, loc. 681