A title worth reading

No, this isn't Jose Canseco's expose on 'roids in the big leagues, nor the book behind the movie about gangsta life. This is a book about the "Eureka!" moments (and non-Eureka moments that take years to develop) leading to the techno-innovations that shape our lives. At least, that's what I think; I haven't yet read this book, but it's on a high-priority fast-track to leap ahead of many others on my shelf. I'm also working to make it required reading for the nucleus of HQT pioneers.

I cut out the review below in January of 2005, then lost the clipping until today. My apologies for lack of citation to the WaPo reviewer, whose initials were on the clipping as "S.P." Thanks, Mr. P, for your recommendation. I'll make up for it by buying you a fresh brew (beer or joe, your choice) when we next meet.

From Washington Post Book Reviews of Sunday, January 9, 2005:

“Necessity is said to be the mother of invention. But now comes Evan I. Shwartz, a regular contributor to MIT's Technology Review, with a counter-theory: Invention is actually the mother of ne­cessity. Most of the big breakthroughs, he argues, don't come from people trying to figure out solutions to obvi­ous problems. They search out big problems that nobody even imag­ined and systematically go about solving them. Juice: The Creative Fuel That Drives World-Class Inventors (Harvard Business School) is full of interesting case studies: Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal; Segway inventor Dean Kamen; Woody Norris, who created an ultrasound system capable of transmitting sound without speakers. There are also interesting insights about the power of analogy, the importance of thinking systemically, and the ability to exploit dumb luck. Schwartz is skillful in weaving to­gether the stories and the insights. But he is less convincing in driving home his larger point— namely, that true creativity is less the stuff of ge­nius than it is something that can be learned and taught and systematically produced.”