Customer Reviews

Inventorship: The Art of Innovation

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This is an easy to read book by the inventor of several aeronautical instruments. The author is also a prolific "idea" guy, and he shares many of his undeveloped ideas throughout the book. Dr. Greene goes into just a little of the detail behind his invention of the airplane stall indicator, his crowning achievement and apparently the source of his wealth. After that, the author covers many invention case studies in a very cursory and story telling way. The stories are entertaining but will not give more than a peek at what goes into the "Art of Innovation".
Much of the book is self-serving and reads like a memoir at times. There are many stories about how the author was with his family on a fantastic vacation and came up with a great invention. The stories continue to include his private plane, summer home, son's helicopter, private sail yacht, etc. Greene is very forward about showing you the riches and great life that can accompany Inventorship. He uses the book to also link politics with Inventorship by briefly plugging his book on The National Tax Rebate as an example of using Inventiveness for social issues.
Some of Greene's invention examples allocate himself a little more credit than seems reasonable. In one parable, Greene claims to have had a chat with a Princeton Professor after a lecture that resulted in major revisions of the world's cyclotrons and moved particle physics research to a new level. The kicker is Greene claims that the fundamental principle for this cyclotron design occurred to him while playing with his trains when he was seven years old.
Buy this book for the corny and sometimes funny stories. Buy this book for insight into an octogenarian who has had an impact on the aeronautical industry. Buy this book to get a few nuggets of wisdom about bringing a product to market. Don't buy this book for a "how-to" on inventing.

If you are at all interested in the invention process then you'll should get this book to read on the actual processes that an inventor went through in invention after invention.

At first I thought the author was a little egocentric... talking about all of his inventions. Then I realized that he was truly a profilic inventor. His method of telling us about the invention process was to illustrate each of the methods he used with real stories of inventions. Stories that happened (mostly) to him.

It is very easy to read, and the author went out the way to get an artist to support his points with illustrations. As I read the book I became intrigued with all of his inventions. After a while I started saying to myself... "Gosh, I can't believe he invented this under those conditions."

Particularly interesting was his analysis of what the people on the Titanic could have done to save the ship.

I think there are better academic books about the invention process out there... but there are few that offer a look inside the mind of someone who invented so many products.

John Dunbar

It is not a bad book. You should admire that the author wanted to make the world a better place by teaching about being inventive. Although, in my opinion, I find that the author has a bit of ego telling the world he has invented this and that. I don't find anything ego about creating a more safer aircraft, but the other example I do find it to be bragging. The author suggestion about being inventive doesn't seem new, it just that most people doesn't seem to notice it yet.

I don't actually recommand that you buy this book on how to be inventive.

However, if you wanted a few funny story, then by all means, buy this book.

This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn how to apply creative thinking, imagination, and "lateral thinking" to their lives and work. It is suitable for anyone, but would be best for children age 10 and older, and adults. The author has lived an amazing life, and filled this book with stories of how he has changed the world, and the people around him. This is a great book for someone looking to find new solutions to old problems, or just looking to "spice things up." There should be a web site where people can share ideas that are stimulated by this book.

From the beginning of Leonard Greene's book, "Inventorship, the Art of Innovation", Walter Cronkite writing in the Foreword, writes about one of my favorite writers of yesterday. Cronkite tells the reader a World War Two incident involving a reporter friend of his, Jimmy Cannon. Cronkite and the other American reporters could not get by the Russian Guards because they had no proper ID. Cannon got by the Russian Guards and spent two days with them before returning to Cronkite and the American Third Army. The Question was "How did Cannon do it?" Leonard Greene provides the answer for his readers in his book: think about the problem at hand, and use "the art of innovation." Jimmy Cannon's solution: thinking and innovation. Cannon showed the Russian Guards "his Texaco credit card with the oil company's big red star on its back.The Guards couldn't read English, but the soviet symbol was enough, and pass him through they did." Leonard Greene's new book is full of wonderful ideas of how inventions come into being. He proves in an intelligent and interesting way that necessity is not necessarily the the only mother of invention; "Imagination is." During World War Two, when this writer was a young sailor. one of the things that amazed me was how in God's name did those planes take off and land on aircraft cariers, especially, the carriers we called the "baby carriers." Leonard's Inventions/solutions: Stall Warning Devices for landing; speed bumps at the end of the runway for take-offs. The Elder President Bush knows their value from his WW11 South Pacific flying days. Leonard Greene's book is facinating reading; it should be required reading with Peter Drucker's books in University/College Business Schools.I give Greene's book the Highest Recommendation.