Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Share The Things They Thought They 'Invented' But Actually Already Existed

People Share The Things They Thought They 'Invented' But Actually Already Existed
Make us preferred on Google

You ever have a stroke of genius where you think "Wow, how am I not a successful inventor?"

Followed shortly thereafter by the realization, "I am not a genius, I just invented pleather."


Sometimes our brains miss the very last step of logic that reminds us this thing we thought we invented already exists. In those brief, shining moments where we believe ourselves to be geniuses, we see a world of possibilities ahead of us.

Immediately after, we see a world where everybody has already thought of everything.

u/jacklandors92 asked:

What have you accidentally "invented" in your mind before you realized it already exists in the world in some form?

Here were some of those answers.


A Shield By Any Other Name

Giphy

I was thinking about ways to defend yourself from attack. Started out with a shield and thought "what if we go bigger?"

Tower shield?

Let's go bigger.

Shield that protects 180 degrees of your body.

Let's go bigger.

Shield that protects a full 360 degrees.

That's cumbersome.

What if we could fit it to your body?

Armour. That's armour. Nevermind.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cwo4ut...

Flipbook

If you put pictures along a subway wall at the right distance from each other, and the train is moving at a constant speed, it will look like a movie to passengers in the train. Held on to this "invention" until I saw one of these in the train from Heathrow to central London once, there are probably others elsewhere.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cwo4ut...

A Fan To Nowhere

Got into a drunken conversation with my cousin and we "invented" a toilet that had a built in exhaust fan that would suck your stink air out instead of having a normal fan in the ceiling.

We went on and on about the proper implementation of it for like 20 minutes before thinking to google it.

They exist, and they're expensive. :(

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cwo4ut...

Protected Foot

I decided that leggings would be better if they had socks attached and got really excited about my invention idea for a solid minute until I realized I had just "invented" tights.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cwo4ut...

Nah, i've had this discussion before with my skiier buddies. They should make long johns with built in ski socks.

My buddy said "like tights", and i was like nah, you want it to be the different materials for both, but attached so you don't have to have the uncomfortable in-boot overlap of sock and longjohn cuffs.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cwo4ut...

Wiretapped

"LiveWire" orange Mountain Dew. My friend and I decided to mix Crush with Mountain Dew once and found it was delicious. Then a few weeks later we saw it at a gas station and thought the CIA was listening to our phone lines (pre cell phones, for our area at least)

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cwo4ut...

Or A Bed With Wheels

Giphy

After a long day pushing my son around Disney World in his stroller I was day dreaming about how nice it would be for there to be adult sized strollers that we could use to get off our feet when we are tired.

And that's the day I invented the wheel chair.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cwo4ut...

This Magic Mixture

The color green. I was coloring a picture at home (I think it was a football player), first with yellow, then I accidentally drew with blue over it and the result was turqoise-greenish. Somewhere over the next few days in school, we had to do presentations and we were trying to decide for a color for the header. I was like "How about this?", showed it on my paper and everyone was like "Noo, green is boring... let's go with something else", which was when I realized oooh, yeah, that's green oops.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cwo4ut...

Where The Foods Are

Friends liked to go to bars and hang out a lot. I don't drink, but I do get hungry and most bar food is only okay at best. I wish they served better food for me to eat. I also hate having to yell to hold a conversation, so I wish they turned the music down and it was generally quieter and we could hear each other at a normal volume. So there should be, like, a bar but that serves a wider variety of better food and that has quiet music so you can hear each other talk. Great idea! -- wait, that's just a restaurant, self. You want to hang out in restaurants.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cwo4ut...

The Cinema

Giphy

I was watching Black Mirror, and I was thinking how the seasons only have like 3-4 episodes, then I thought "well it's ok since the episodes are long." Then I got thinking "what if they made a season with one episode and the one episode is really long." Then I realized that those are just movies

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cwo4ut...

Times Tables

When we were memorizing the times tables in elementary school, I couldn't get the nines, for whatever reason. So I'm studying this trying to figure out how to remember it, when I stumbled on a pattern. If you're multiplying the number by 9, you could multiply it by 10 instead, and just subtract the original number. I thought I was so brilliant, like I'm going to be some math prodigy or something.

Yeah no, it turns out that's just how all multiplication works. Looking back though, it's pretty dumb that we make kids rote memorize these dumb tables, instead of helping them understand the core idea in the first place.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cwo4ut...

More from People

Donald Trump; a Domino's Pizza location
Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP via Getty Images; Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

White House's Attempt To Piggyback Off Of A Domino's Pizza Meme Backfires Spectacularly—And The Jokes Are Delicious

The White House was mocked almost immediately after its social media team repurposed a tweet from Domino's Pizza to promote President Donald Trump and his administration.

The UK division for Domino's recently shared a viral post in which it declared something—namely its pizza—"starts with D and never disappoints."

Keep Reading Show less
Screenshots of Josh Hawley and Anthony Fauci
Fox News

Josh Hawley Gets Brutal Reality Check After His Hot Take About People Who Plead The Fifth

Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley was given a reality check after claiming that Dr. Anthony Fauci isn't "honest" after he invoked the Fifth Amendment during a hearing on Wednesday about his handling of the COVID pandemic.

The move temporarily spared Fauci from answering questions that could have exposed him to allegations of lying under oath. Although former President Joe Biden granted him a pardon in early 2025, some Republicans who have pushed for years to pursue legal action against Fauci argued he could still face prosecution for any perjury committed during Wednesday's testimony.

Keep Reading Show less
Eva Mendes; Ryan Gosling; Johnny Depp
Gotham/GC Images/Getty Images; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images; Hoda Davaine/Red Sea International Film Festival/Getty Images

Eva Mendes Slams AI-Generated Image Of Husband Ryan Gosling And Johnny Depp—And We're Obsessed

Hitch and 2 Fast 2 Furious star Eva Mendes isn't going to let anything slide when it comes to husband Ryan Gosling's reputation, and she's not going to let AI slop go by undetected, either.

Last weekend was San Diego's giant annual Comic-Con, with big reveals about what to expect next in the entertainment industry, including Ryan Gosling's official casting as Ghost Rider in an upcoming Marvel film, which was announced during the MCU panel centered around Avengers: Doomsday in Hall H.

Keep Reading Show less
Glen Hansard
Luciano Viti/Getty Images

Celebrity Tributes Come Pouring In For 'Once' Star Glen Hansard After His Tragic Death In Motorcycle Accident—And Fans Are Heartbroken

Irish musician and Oscar-winning performer Glen Hansard has tragically passed away at the age of 56 after a motorcycle accident in Dublin, Ireland.

Hansard was best known for the 2007 Oscar-winning film Once, which went on to win eight Tony Awards for its Broadway adaptation. He also received an Oscar for Best Original Song for his single "Falling Slowly."

Keep Reading Show less
Keira Knightley; Donald Sutherland
Vanity Fair; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Resurfaced Video Of Keira Knightley's 'Funny' Story About Working With Donald Sutherland Sparks Debate

Keira Knightley, despite having major roles in films like Pirates of the Caribbean, Atonement, and Pride & Prejudice, has spent most of her career operating under the radar when it comes to controversy.

That's changed now that a clip from an interview opposite Rosamund Pike for Vanity Fair resurfaced last weekend.

Keep Reading Show less