Just by an accident or playing or through a mistake, you discover something. It is called serendipity. Many inventions and discoveries are stumbled upon — artificial sweetners, smoke detectors, X-ray imaging, microwave oven, safety glass. Can we train us to be serendipitous?

How the word originated? Belle-letterist Horace Walpole retreated to a desk in a castle in South-West London and wrote a letter. Walpole was impressed by a Persian fairy tale of three princes from the Isle of Serendip. They possessed superpowers of observation. Walpole indicated in his letter that the story has a great idea about human genius. These princes were making great discoveries during their travels. They were all due to accidents or sagacity. They were never after such quests. He proposed a new word — serendipity — to describe this princely talent for investigative work. Serendipity thus emerged as a skill initially, rather than a stroke of good luck and fortune. Serendipiter  is a practioner of serendipity. Many big ideas emerge from spills, crashes, failed experiments. The phenomenon is difficult to define.