Daily Inspiration Quote by Dean Kamen

The line reads like a half-joke with teeth: a man who lives on the edge of plausibility trying not to look down. Kamen, the inventor-evangelist type, is admitting that public perception is its own form of gravity. Spend enough time building things that dont exist yet and you start collecting labelspeople hear the pitch and reach for the easiest diagnosis: crazy, delusional, hype artist.

The specific intent is protective. Its not that he denies the accusation; he refuses to dwell on it because attention is fuel, and obsession with reputation can burn up the limited cognitive bandwidth inventors need for the work itself. The phrasing "have thought or still think" stretches the judgment across time, suggesting a long-running chorus of skepticism that never fully goes away even after you ship a product or prove a concept. Success doesnt erase the feeling; it just changes who whispers.

The subtext is also tactical confidence. Kamen is signaling a core truth of innovation culture: if your idea is genuinely new, it will initially sound wrong to a lot of sensible people. Calling yourself a visionary is gauche; letting other people call you crazy is oddly credible. So he frames the social cost as background noise, not a crisis.

Contextually, this fits an era where inventors are expected to be part engineer, part public performer. Kamen has operated in that spotlight, selling big solutions and big prototypes. The quote exposes the emotional tax behind the showmanship: inventing isnt just technical risk, its identity risk.