Since it's really impossible to say, we can consider the possibility that humble not-famous not-inventor alternate universe man might just live in a house with rooms painted various shades of blue because he loves the color so much. Or might run an etsy shop where the products are curiously mostly available in blue colors. Or he's a hobbyist 3d printer enthusiast and likes to use blue filament. Would he tell others that story? Maybe to bemused guests who remark upon entering the House of Blue. Who knows!

Who cares? Its a weird gotcha to get hung up on.

I don’t think it’s odd for a child to pick blue as their favorite color because they grew up by the sea. That seems not at all unusual regardless of whether the child later grew up to invent the blue LED.

There aren’t that many colors that kids tend to choose from when they develop a favorite color, and blue has got to be one of the more common ones.

Would interviewers ask why his favorite color was blue if not for his inventing blue LEDs? Probably not. But might his favorite color still be blue because of his childhood memory? Sure, why not?

You’re acting like he’s actively going around saying “Hey! Guess what my favorite color is? It’s blue! And I invented the blue LED, isn’t that a coincidence? And by the way, I loved the blue of the ocean since I was a kid!”

He simply answered a question Derek asked and followed it up by saying that he probably likes blue because of the ocean’s color. It doesn’t even have anything to do with the LED.

Weird hill to die on.

> Had he not invented the blue led, would he be telling everyone his childhood in the fishing village made him love the color blue

No. Nobody would care. He'd learn to stop telling that dumb story.

But here's the thing. It's a beautiful story, it's a touch of his personality, and those are nice things to have.

And, I must insist, he's earned a little self-indulgent reminiscence.