The Cool Spaghetti Fork, by Bob Balow

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (August 23rd 2011)

I love this fork.

Americans usually eat spaghetti by twirling it with a fork, while steadying the fork with a tablespoon with the other hand. It can be a mild but painstaking effort to enjoy a favorite meal. Now this guy has come up with something neat, and he can even twirl spaghetti with his original pasta fork with one hand.

Apparently Bob Balow's company has sold 400,000 of these cool forks. Personally I’m happy that it’s done so well.  Here’s why.

First, this is a low-tech product that relies more on the ingenuity of its inventor than on sophisticated, highly expensive technology. Now, please don’t get me wrong. I love the sort of sophisticated technology that Apple came up with for the iPad2, for example, that allows you to view an image in either portrait or landscape orientation, just by turning it. Still, despite the millions buying Apple innovations, vast swaths of people around the world simply cannot afford to buy them.

Second, I discovered this on YouTube. A lot of crappy videos and rude comments here, but at the same time there are so many gems to find that it’s a pleasure just to browse its recommended videos. Balow probably doesn’t have the sleek marketing prowess and tools of Steve Jobs, so his specialty fork may struggle to reach the sort of sales numbers that the iPad2 commands. Still, through the phenomena of social media and the internet more generally, selling this many forks is quite an achievement. As an entrepreneur, who has now launched the first of many business projects and who faces sales and marketing challenges, I find this inspirational.

Finally, this invention reminds me of what Anil Gupta relates in his TED Talk India's hidden hotbeds of inventions:

People may be economically poor, but they’re not poor in the mind.

Prof. Gupta speaks about people in impoverished Indian villages, using the simple technology on which the venerable, trusted bicycle relies and turning it into something that makes life at these villages just a bit more comfortable and comforting. I love the story, for example, of 70-year old Md. Saidullah and his amphibious bicycle. He was desperate to meet his loved one, but couldn’t wait for the boat to take him across the waterway.

So here he is peddling away on his simple but awesome invention:

Back to Balow’s invention, Kids Having Fun Learning How to Use Spaghetti-Pasta-Noodle Fork... are not only so cute, but also so clever in how they understand and use the original pasta fork.  They imagine it to be like a ballerina doing a pirouette. I don’t know if he’s done this, but I suggest that Balow create matching spoons and knives for his fork. I didn’t see such a set on his website.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD