Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

by Alan Axelrod

• ISBN13: 9780470231395
• ISBN10: 0470231394
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2008-05-01
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

In this fascinating exploration of one of the most celebrated and innovative minds, best-selling author Alan Axelrod cuts through the myths and reverence surrounding Edison's "genius" to show how the inventor was, in fact, an ordinary man who created extraordinary work. While many of us believe that creativity, like genius, is something that just happens by chance or destiny, Edison's life demonstrates that creativity of the very highest order can indeed be summoned up at will, and even reduced to a reliable working method and set of principles.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Lesson 1: Stop Thinking and Act Like a Genius

Life Story of a Middle American

Getting Your Hands Dirty

Lesson 2: Experiment with Everything

Lesson 3: Become a Boy of the Nineteenth Century

Lesson 4: Knowing

Lesson 5: See It

Lesson 6: Working Bottom Up

Lesson 7: Do the Thing Itself

Lesson 8: Cut and Try

Lesson 9: Know Properties, Not Theories

Lesson 10: Understand Hands-On: Touch Everything

Lesson 11: Miss No Detail

Lesson 12: Know WhatÆs Going on Inside

How to Use Everything

Lesson 13: Profi t from Disability

Lesson 14: Lose No Idea

Lesson 15: Be Exhaustive

Lesson 16: Appreciate Your Ignorance

Lesson 17: Sharpen Your Tools

Lesson 18: Embrace Problems

Lesson 19: Problems Are Directions

Lesson 20: The Limits of the Problem Approach

Lesson 21: Use Disaster

Lesson 22: ôNo Experiments Are Uselessö

Lesson 23: Fertile Failure

Lesson 24: Make Defects Their Own Remedy

Investing

Lesson 25: The Ideal Executive

Lesson 26: Insure the Permanency of an Investment

Lesson 27: Invest in Assets

Lesson 28: Start Small, Scale Up

Lesson 29: Build an Invention Factory

Lesson 30: Support the Shop

Lesson 31: Build on the Weakest Points

Lesson 32: Become a Collector

Entrepreneurship

Lesson 33: Take a Reverse Inventory

Lesson 34: Identify Markets

Lesson 35: Defi ne Yourself

Lesson 36: Innovate Without Inventing

Lesson 37: Inspire Confidence

Lesson 38: Take the Credit

Lesson 39: Be Legendary

Lesson 40: Invent Systems

Lesson 41: Think Bigger

Lesson 42: Let Research Lead

Lesson 43: DonÆt Stop Experimenting

Lesson 44: Invite Distraction

Lesson 45: Time It

Lesson 46: Imagine the Future

Lesson 47: Get Between

Creating Your Customers

Lesson 48: Get the News

Lesson 49: Give Praise to the Dissatisfi ed Customer

Lesson 50: Educate the Customer

Lesson 51: Learn the Market

Lesson 52: Niche Thinking: Find a Small Space to Make It Big

Lesson 53: Offer an Edge

Lesson 54: Move into a More Hospitable Environment

Lesson 55: Sell Innovation

Lesson 56: The Limits of Innovation

Lesson 57: Become a Brand

Lesson 58: No Such Thing as Overproduction

Making Rain

Lesson 59: Be Skeptical, Never Cynical

Lesson 60: Get the Biggest Picture

Lesson 61: Design What You Need

Lesson 62: Create New Uses for Whatever You Have

Lesson 63: ôGuard Against Resultsö

Lesson 64: Exploit the Unexpected

Grinding It Out

Lesson 65: Learn a Lesson from The Temperate Life

Lesson 66: Know the Known

Lesson 67: Want Some Real Labor? Try Thinking

Lesson 68: ôGenius Is 1 Percent Inspiration and 99 Percent Perspirationö

Lesson 69: Work the Problem

Lesson 70: Redesign

Lesson 71: DonÆt Stop with Version 1

Lesson 72: The Two Masters

Lesson 73: Try a Kaleidoscopic Approach

Lesson 74: Exploit the Details

Lesson 75: Speed

Lesson 76: Plod

Lesson 77: Unlimited Incentive

Lesson 78: If At First You Do Succeed, Try Again Anyway

Managing

Lesson 79: Never Neglect Logistics

Lesson 80: ôMean to Succeedö

Lesson 81: Plan for Spontaneity

Lesson 82: Create a Shop

Lesson 83: Start a School

Lesson 84: Make Creativity a Predictable Process

Lesson 85: Create Standards

Lesson 86: Subdivide, Delegate, Empower

Lesson 87: Harvest Complaints

Lesson 88: Favor Fluid Structures

Lesson 89: Keep Score

Faking Genius

Lesson 90: Model It

Lesson 91: Get on the Train

Lesson 92: To Innovate, Imitate

Lesson 93: Do It Better

Lesson 94: Create by Analogy

Lesson 95: Make the Problem the Solution

Lesson 96: Analogy Again

Lesson 97: Another Problem, Another Solution

Lesson 98: New Wholes from Old Parts

Lesson 99: Better to Elaborate Than Replace?

Lesson 100: Prefer Evolution to Revolution

Lesson 101: Make the New Familiar

Lesson 102: Work Beyond the Cutting Edge

An Edison Chronology

Two Hundred Representative Patents

Suggested Reading

The Author

Index

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