Inventology
How We Dream Up Things That Change the World
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
Find out where great ideas come from.
A businessman struggles with his luggage at an airport and pioneers the wheeled suitcase. An engineer watches people using walkie-talkies and dreams up the mobile phone. A printer is frustrated by his unpredictable inks and creates the Pantone colour system.
Why were these particular people able to identify a problem, and how did they discover the solutions that everyone else missed? Where exactly did their great ideas come from, and how did they go about making them a reality?
In pursuit of answers, Pagan Kennedy has spent her career examining the creative process, interviewing inventors and engineers, scientists, psychologists and economists in a bid to understand how we create. In Inventology Kennedy collects their wisdom and explores a series of landmark inventions, taking us through the processes by which we have come to dream up new products and technologies, and conceived solutions to ‘impossible’ problems.
A must-read for anyone who is curious about imagination, design and innovation, Inventology will inspire and entertain, and will show you how to become more creative.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kennedy (Black Livingstone), former innovation columnist for the New York Times Magazine, examines the process of invention, wondering whether there is any formula for success. Kennedy interviews more than 100 inventors in different fields, asking who really does the work of invention, what we can learn from data on successful inventions, and what can be gained from emerging technologies such as 3-D printers. Along the way, she provides fascinating studies of numerous innovations, such as the rolling suitcase and color printing. Kennedy divides the book into five sections, each exploring a different strategy for invention: finding problems, discovery, prophecy, connecting, and empowerment. She also looks at how creative people channel frustration into solutions and explores the role of serendipity. Her interviewees recommend ways to think ahead of the curve and overcome self-doubt. The most absorbing chapter centers on "cross-pollinators" people who carry ideas from one domain into another, thereby enabling new solutions. This book offers a new perspective into the process of invention that will inform and illuminate.
