The Myths of Innovation

The Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun is not a book about famous innovation fables - although there is some debunking going on in the book. No, Myths of Innovation looks at several commonly held beliefs and attempts to provide a social, historical and economic analysis of the "myth" and then consider what's true, and what's not true, about that commonly held belief. Berkun looks at innovation myths such as: * Epiphanies - do ideas spring up from the "whole cloth"? * Innovation methods * Whether or not people love new ideas * The myth of the "lone inventor" * Whether or not the "best" ideas win There are plenty of commonly held beliefs or myths around innovation, which Berkun does a great job investigating. What's great about his book is that it is not advocating for or against innovation, but putting innovation in a context. He simultaneously demonstrates that innovation is simpler and less complex than we believe, and often more complex and difficult than we believe. His book is less a "how to innovate" book and more of a social commentary on innovation from an interested observer's point of view. He mixes a lot of history and commentary in the discussion of each myth. After all, anyone who can include the famous Lloyd Dobler quote : " I don't want to sell anything, buy anything or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought or processed, or repair anything sold, bought or processed. has got to have the confidence of his material while retaining a tongue planted firmly in cheek. This was probably one of the most interesting books I've read about innovation in quite a while. There's no story, no plot and very little "how to" in the book - more a historical and social commentary on innovation over time. Myths of Innovation reminds me of some of the "popular" history books by authors like Stephen Ambrose, who point out all of the economic, technological and societal factors that shape important technologies or events. However, Berkun writes with a style more in line with Berkeley Breathed than Herodotus. This is a great book if you are interested in innovation and want to learn more about the commonly held beliefs and how to overcome them. It is also an interesting commentary on innovation from a societal and historical point of view, and keeps a very sardonic undertone - almost as if innovation were a politician who needed to be taken down a few pegs. A few reviewers have argued there's nothing "new" in the book - but that's just the point. Apple didn't invent the MP3 player - they recognized a number of technologies that needed some packaging to create a great consumer application. Likewise Berkun didn't create innovation methodologies and doesn't advocate for them - he just points out some of the "emperor's clothes" issues about innovation given real world examples that we are already familiar with - it's not

Berkun's book is small, concise, and a very good read on what innovation really is -- not the myths and stories we've come to associate with major breakthroughs. Newton's discoveries about gravity, legends to the contrary, didn't come from inspration after he got hit on the head by an apple; instead his breakthroughs came about after years and years of work in the field. All of Newton's prior experiences combined to give him the ability to meld everything together and come up with some unique ideas. Berkun repeats this idea throughout this short, highly enjoyable book: Innovation is very, very rarely some epiphany moment where an idea is spawned completely out of the blue. Instead, innovation, inspiration, and epiphanies are the product of having laid the groundwork in many different ways. Berkun talks about this groundwork in several different fashions. He talks about how good managers set up an environment which fosters creativity and innovation (think old Microsoft, current Google, SemTech in Brazil), how innovators are able to build off their prior experiences, and a number of other critical factors. The book's well-written, and it's a physical pleasure to read. The book's small size, pleasant paper, and great photographs all combine for an "innovative" experience.

Have you ever been to a party and met someone with a great job and a great sense of humor and ended up spending the entire party drinking beer and swapping interesting stories? That's what Scott Berkun's new book, "The Myths of Innovation", felt like to me. There are lots of books on my shelf that I know I ought to read, and many of them I struggle through and afterwards feel like it was a valuable investment of my time, however painful. This wasn't one of them - this is one of those rare books that feels like reading for pleasure, and yet you learn something along the way. And I might add that the colophon alone is worth the price of the book (a sentence that perhaps has never been written). I wonder how much time and research Berkun did on this book before he came up with the idea of orienting the book around myths? Was that the idea all along? Or did it emerge over time? Because it turns out to be a perfect way of presenting the material. First, everyone loves to feel like they know something that other people don't - the truth behind the myths. This "peeking behind the curtain" approach is a great way to keep the material interesting. Second, innovation is such a complex area that it would be very difficult to write a book about what innovation is -- it's a lot easier to talk about what it isn't. But by providing the boundaries via the myths, it inevitably provides great insight into how innovation really happens. And third, myth debunking seems to fit Berkun's auctorial voice. His casual, conversational tone is not only funny and engaging, but it naturally allows the type of speculation and interpretation that is necessary for the topic. In other words, a textbook-style examination of innovation would be a very poor choice. While I enjoyed the entire book, I particularly enjoyed in the section on the myth of "the best idea wins". In it, Berkun describes the many factors that are involved in whether an innovation succeeds, and how being the "best" is only one of many factors. When it comes to design innovation in established software, the impact of "dominant design" is always a challenge - what is the cost of moving to something better when you have a large customer base who already knows how to use the product? One example in the book is the QWERTY keyboard that we all know and loathe. But to lesser degree this is always the case - I can't convince my wife to move from Paint to Photoshop for editing pictures because she knows how to use Paint. Whenever I try to tell her about how many great features there are in Photoshop, all she hears is "blah... blah... blah... [it will take lots of time to learn]... blah... blah... blah." I recommend this book highly to anyone who has a job where innovation matters... which is just about everyone.

Occasionally I run across a book that puts into words my general and ill-defined feelings on a particular subject. And this is one of them... The Myths Of Innovation by Scott Berkun. He captures perfectly the difference between what we've been led to believe about innovation as opposed to how it actually works. And on top of that, it's a fun read... Contents: The Myth of Epiphany; We Understand the History of Innovation; There is a Method for Innovation; People Love New Ideas; The Lone Inventor; Good Ideas Are Hard to Find; Your Boss Knows More About Innovation Than You; The Best Ideas Win; Problems and Solutions; Innovation Is Always Good; Research and Recommendations; Photo Credits; Acknowledgements; About the Author; Index Berkun takes on the myth that all great discoveries were made by one (or a small team of) individual who has a "eureka" moment when everything comes together. The myth feels good, as it fits in our American culture of individualism. But the truth of the matter is that the "inventor" of something is really a nebulous thing. Was the inventor the first person who came up with the concept? Was it the first person who made it work? Maybe it's the first person who made it a financially viable product. What you quickly learn in this book is that every large idea is made up of many smaller ideas and innovations that come together to make the new concept possible. The personal computer is an innovation, but it relies on innovations in design, silicon, transistors, magnetics, energy, etc. No one person is responsible for everything. If you remove any of the prior inventions that make up the new whole, the entire structure collapses. I really enjoyed Berkun's thought-provoking chapters. For instance, Newton is credited for many advances in the field of physics. But he's as much a product of his location and time as he is of his studies. Born in a different country or 100 years earlier, Newton doesn't exist as the key figure. But that's not to say that his ideas would have never been uncovered. Others working in the same field with the same surroundings could likely have traveled the same path. Another idea that resonated with me is the concept of "epiphany"... that moment when the "missing piece" drops into place and the whole picture is revealed. In actuality, there's a large amount of work that leads to that moment in time, and without that prior work the "missing piece" becomes just one more part of the puzzle. Innovation is hard work, and it's a process, not a moment in time. Finally, I very much agreed with his view of how time adds meaning to an idea or concept. The Wright brothers' first flight wasn't a big deal when they first launched their contraption at Kitty Hawk. Very few people showed up, and it would be decades before flight became a common occurrence. The Eiffel Tower was considered an eyesore when it was first constructed. Now it's a famous monument. Only with the passage of time does

Scott Berkun has written a great little book on debunking the myths of innovation. He uses the myths to help explain how innovation happens. He also delves into some of the reasons for why these myths are popular and then proceeds to provide some insights on how to approach innovation without falling prey to these myths. He starts the book with a great story of when he visited Google's head quarters and joined a tour group. He describes the moment when two of his co-tourists whispered to each other pointing over to a group of programmers "I see them talking and typing, but when do they come up with their ideas". This lays the groundwork for the rest of the book. It's a question many people ask of any creative/innovative person. Scott continues to explore our fascination with innovation and our desire to find the hidden secrets. Like all myths, the ones behind innovation are derived from quaint stories from history; Newton's Apple, Archimedes' bath tub. Each chapter addresses one of the main myths and exposes the real path to innovation: - the myth of epiphany, - we understand the history of innovation, - there is a method for innovation, - people love new ideas, - the lone inventor - and many more. The book is a fun read, and Scott has a very witty writing style. His stories and personal experiences help to explain some of his counter-intuitive demythologizing. As always the classic sign of a book I love, is that by the end I have many pages highlighted and copious notes written down the margins. Scott's book definitely fell into the category of `stimulating'. Even when I disagreed with him, I agreed with his underlying point. I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in innovation. If you believe innovation is only open to lone geniuses or you are waiting for the proverbial apple of a good idea to fall on your head, then you NEED to read this book immediately!! Scott has done a great service by debunking many of cherished myths that hold many people back from innovating. It is ironic that a book that aims to destroy innovation myths actually provides a set of insights that will help anyone come up with ideas (whether they work at Google or not). Kes Sampanthar Inventor of ThinkCube