Inventology, Pagan Kennedy
Inventology, Pagan Kennedy
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Inventology
How We Dream Up Things That Change the World

Author: Pagan Kennedy

Narrator: Jonathan Todd Ross

Unabridged: 7 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Mariner Books

Published: 08/06/2024


Synopsis

Find out where great ideas come from.

A father cleans up after his toddler and imagines a cup that won't spill. An engineer watches people using walkie-talkies and has an idea. A doctor figures out how to deliver patients to the operating room before they die.

By studying inventions like these — the sippy cup, the cell phone, and an ingenious hospital bed — we can learn how people imagine their way around "impossible" problems to discover groundbreaking answers. Pagan Kennedy reports on how these enduring methods can be adapted to the twenty-first century, as millions of us deploy tools like crowdfunding, big data, and 3-D printing to find hidden opportunities.   
 
Inventology uses the stories of inventors and surprising research to reveal the steps that produce innovation. As Kennedy argues, recent advances in technology and communication have placed us at the cusp of a golden age; it's now more possible than ever before to transform ideas into actuality. Inventology is a must-read for designers, artists, makers—and anyone else who is curious about creativity. By identifying the steps of the invention process, Kennedy reveals the imaginative tools required to solve our most challenging problems.

About Pagan Kennedy

PAGAN KENNEDY was the New York Times Magazine’s “Who Made That?” columnist, and is the author of the New York Times Notable Book Black Livingstone, the Barnes & Noble Discover pick Spinsters, and other books. Her work has appeared in the Boston Globe, Dwell, The Nation, and elsewhere.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Andy on August 16, 2016

When I hear "things that change the world" I don't think of squirt guns.......more

Goodreads review by K on October 25, 2015

I received an early copy of this book, and loved it! I didn't know how interested I'd be in the psychology of invention (I tend to be an impatient reader), but Pagan Kennedy has such a brisk, engaging way of telling stories that I found myself inhaling the book over a couple days. She stays away fro......more

Goodreads review by Victor on April 27, 2017

Lots of stories made the book really interesting to read. I like how inventions and the history and causes are laid out and examined.......more

Goodreads review by Debbie on December 08, 2016

The author explored a wide variety of ways that people have come up with new inventions, and she focused on recent inventions. We're told about the invention of wheels suitcases to illustrate inventions that were created by people who deal with a problem on a regular basis. We're told about an MIT c......more

Goodreads review by Susan on May 23, 2016

This book was interesting overall. I enjoyed reading about how things were invented, although that wasn't the point of the book. It was satisfying to find out that, given a large enough number of people doing the same thing over and over, the chance of an improvement being invented by one or more of......more