"According to the The Asahi Shimbun, Hideki Watanabe, a dentist from Tobe, Japan, invented the “Kurukuru nabe” (or ‘swirly pot’) to help cooks keep their hands free when preparing dinner. The pan has special groves that makes a small whirlpool when the water is heated, causing the contents inside to spin. Check out the video.
While neat in its own right, the invention and its history tell an important story about the world we live in. Besides the big innovations that change the world dramatically, a steady tide of new gadgets continues to reshape daily life in small ways.
Over time these little changes add up—30 years ago Americans had no Internet, ATMs, laptops, or DVDs. The conventional income comparisons between generations miss this. The richest man in the world couldn’t have bought a smartphone in 1983; today even people of very modest incomes can afford one. Our quality of life has improved much more than income levels suggest.
But there’s another aspect of the story behind the swirly pot that’s worth noticing. Watanabe invented the pot in his kitchen one night when he was struggling with trying to smoke and cook at the same time. When he saw a self-stirring pot could work, he got a patent and posted a video of the product on YouTube:"
