The Myths of Innovation 1st Edition

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

(review of 2nd edition - 10/03/2010)

"Innovation" is a word that gets used so often in marketing hype that it seems to have lost its meaning. Scott Berkun sets out to reclaim the word and offer up a true definition in his book The Myths of Innovation. I found this book so compelling while reading it on my iPad that I ended up figuring out how to do highlighting as there were many points I wanted to remember and ponder.

Table of 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; Epilogue - Beyond hype and history; Creating thinking hacks; How to pitch an idea; How to stay motivated; Research and recommendations

One of the reasons this book resonated so deeply with me is due to my view of how people add importance to events that weren't critical at the time. For instance, a particular battle may be touted as the turning point of a war, and a commander's decision a brave and ingenious move. But the battle could have just as well been lost, no one would have written it up, and some other potential outcome would have decided the war. We seem to think that the outcome we received was the only possible course, and that's incorrect. Quoting Berkun: "Yes, when we look at any history timeline, we're encouraged to believe that other outcomes were impossible. Because the events on timelines happened, regardless of how bizarre or unlikely, we view them today as predetermined." I'm glad to see that Myths fights back against this common belief.

Looking more directly at innovation, Berkun reveals another myth that bugs me to no end. "The dilemma is that, at any moment, it's difficult to know whether we're witnessing progress or merely, in a hill-climbing distraction, a short-term gain with negative long-term consequences." We can't know how things are going to turn out, and there are far too many examples of ideas and "innovations" that were found out later to have horrible long-term effects. DDT, anyone?

Just one more example that caused me to do a "yes!" when I was reading... We attach major significance to objects that, at the time, were common. The Rosetta Stone is thought to be one of the most significant discoveries and artifacts ever found. But the text on the stone is nothing but basic, everyday communication to the people of the time. It would be like someone discovering a piece of our junk mail 1000 years from now and declaring it a significant piece of 21st century communication. Yet at the time, we throw it away. Because we look at the Rosetta Stone as enabling us to decipher ancient languages, we tend to revere the stone itself. But it's really just a common thing that happened to survive the centuries, and we've attached significance to the item that wasn't intended when it was first created.

Berkun goes on in the later chapters to help you understand the true nature of innovation, as well has how the process of getting and developing ideas is available to any of us. Coming away from reading Myths, you should understand that innovation is hard work, it's not a single event, and your ideas build upon the ideas of others. In addition, what you think your idea is good for and what actually happens to it could be two entirely different things. When the first HTML page was built and put on a network for sharing, no one could have imagined what the Internet would end up becoming.

The Myths of Innovation is a top-notch read, and one that you should plan on revisiting often...

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

I enjoyed reading this book, it was a quick light-hearted read. While I didn't learn anything earth-shattering, it was a nice way to pass a few hours and to inspire a bit of brain-storming. The author did try to inject humour in his writing, but much of it came across as rather cheesy.

If that is what you're after, then this book is fine. If you're after something more serious, then I would suggest looking elsewhere.

The author doesn't appear to have done any real research aside from surfing the web and chatting to people in bars. The book reads more like a personal blog of somebody who spends a lot of time reading about innovation. About half of the books "citations" were to web-pages (many of which are now dead links).

Overall this book comes across as an earnest attempt by a "pro-am". I suspect that it would have made for a great blog if the author turned each chapter into a post; but as a book it just feels cheesy and lacking real substance or authority.

I would have given it only one or two stars on the basis of the content, if not for the fact that the light-hearted tone made it enjoyable to read. So, overall, it's "Okay".