The speaker argues that invention often proceeds through experimentation before the relevant theories or machinery are understood, citing the steam engine's development before thermodynamics and the Wright brothers' airplane experiments.

“you people are just like trying different random stuff you often even before the theories about how that industry works or how the relevant machinery works is developed like the steam engine was developed before the theory of thermodynamics the right brothers it seems like they're just experimenting with airplanes um uh and is often influenced by breakthroughs in totally different fields which is why you have this pattern of parallel innovation because the you know the the background level of tech is at a point at which you can do this experiment”