Legend has it that Archimedes once ran through the streets of Syracuse naked yelling, “Eureka!” because he had discovered an amazing scientific principle. (BTW, if you’re thinking, “What on earth does this have to do with focal dystonia?” just hold your horses, grasshopper! Keep reading!)
And the punchline of the story… The craftsman was executed for failing to forge a purely golden crown, and Archimedes is accredited for the phrase that captures our modern day expression of creative epiphanies.
That strike of ingenuity.
That magical “Aha!” moment that comes from a place everyone can access: everyday life.
Breakfast Club “Bingo” Moment
For Colin Roche – one afternoon of lunch detention led him to inventing (or should I say, reinventing) the pen.
The product is Penagain, a newly designed structure of a pen that according to Roche, “Harnesses the natural weight of your hand for downward pressure rather than squeezing and pushing down.” The “again designed” pen, Penagain, might just be a godsend for people who find holding a standard pen difficult to painful in the extreme.
Are you fascinated with inventions stories? Read the blog How High School Detention Led to My Invention by Colin Roche, the man who’s “reinvention” of the pen has helped people suffering with focal hand dystonia.
With focal hand dystonia, the finger(s) either curl into the palm or extend outward without control. The design of the Penagain supports the hand and helps a person cope with uncontrollable hand clenching or muscle freezing.
Surprise Gifts
When Colin Roche sat in lunch detention that day, he didn’t realize that he would invent a product that would, “help people cope with a variety of ailments – focal dystonia, stroke victims, rheumatoid arthritis, hand tremors, kids for ADHD, MS, and autism.”
It took collective feedback to make him realize just what he’d accomplished: people who’d been fighting a losing battle with standard pens spoke up and shared their voices.
The feedback and comments from Roche’s Penagain product reviews showed that the invention served a greater audience than he ever could have anticipated.
Epiphanies and Eureka
In the end, it doesn’t much matter whether Archimedes ran through ancient streets naked or in his underwear because unlike the Emperor in THAT famous fairy tale, the people spoke up and pointed out the brilliance of Roche’s design.
The Eureka! story – fact or fable – remains the touchstone of a creative epiphany. And for the greater audience that is served by Penagain, Roche’s epiphany resulted in a writing tool that helps some maintain a sometimes fragile existence of independence.
