The Myths of Innovation

Reviewed by Robert Pritchett

Introduction

“In The Myths of Innovation, bestselling author Scott Berkun takes a careful look at innovation history, including the software and Internet Age, to reveal how ideas truly become successful innovations-truths that people can apply to today's challenges. Using dozens of examples from the history of technology, business, and the arts, you'll learn how to convert the knowledge you have into ideas that can change the world.

• Why all innovation is a collaborative process
• How innovation depends on persuasion
• Why problems are more important than solutions
• How the good innovation is the enemy of the great
• Why the biggest challenge is knowing when it's good enough

In this book…

Scott Berkun has done an excellent job bringing google searches and his own research to print regarding innovation. Since Scott is a former Microsoft Manager, I found his occasional references to Steve Jobs intriguing, even as we hear the Microsoft PR machine continue to make Microsoft appear as an innovator.

Scott even has a self promotion website and Blog that brings interactivity into the equation.

The Myths of Innovation looks at a list of idea killers, but Scott’s Blog provides balance and even lists idea starters not found in the book –

http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2006/idea-killers-ways-to-stop-ideas/

http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2006/idea-starters-ways-to-grow-ideas/

There are 10 chapters and an Appendix that makes the book feel like Scott took a Master’s Thesis approach to writing. The book was heavily previewed by others, based on the plethora of quotes praising the book found prior to getting into the Preface.

There is some repetition, but not much as Scott Berkun lays out what the myth of epiphany is, the “history” of and method for innovation, the “lone” inventor, why good ideas are hard to find, how bosses know more than you, why we believe that best ideas win, problems and solutions and a tongue-planted firmly-in-cheek approach to why innovation is always good (Not).

I dog-eared the heck out of this book even as I experienced the dark angst that seems to be the flavor of this book. Scott shows us who some of the brave souls are who took intellectual and physical risks to improve the world and the near-total rejection initially of their ideas and concepts that eventually did in fact change the world for the better.

Each chapter has footnotes that either link to book references or website links for digging deeper.

I came away realizing once again that innovators create sea changes and challenge the status quo with their egos. I now understand that imagination needs to be rediscovered and that facts, ideas and solutions each require quality time to come to fruition. And to bring those innovations to fruition may require entrepreneurship to bring them to light.

Nothing gets accomplished in a vacuum and while one or two individuals get “credit” for championing a cause, there are myriads of others behind the scenes that make things happen, based on hundreds and thousands of previous little insights and inventions beginning with something as simple as a screw.

I really liked this line – “America created Superman, not Second-place-man or Sometimes-better-than-average-guy” – as Scott delves in to the benefits of Meritocracy.

Apparently there is a Yin and Yang thing about innovation and Scott also looks at some secondary factors such as culture, dominant design, inheritance and tradition, politics, economics, goodness, short-term vs. long-term thinking and finding the “sweet spot” between the competition of ease of adoption of an idea and the goodness of a given innovation.

Most innovations are a function of a problem looking for a solution, with the best innovations looking at what customers want vs. what engineering constraints or “revolution” is being pursued. I read about the importance of prototyping and experimenting before rushing off to production.

The last chapter deals with unintended consequences of innovative ideas and cites the fact that Orville Wright lived to see the plane originally intended for peaceful observation in war to replace the hot air balloon, to be used to drop nuclear bombs on cities. He missed out watching them used to fly into buildings.

The effects of dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane used to control typhus and malaria ended up creating collateral effects such as cats eating DDT-laden lizards that died, causing the rat population to increase and bringing back the threat of plague to humans. Scott also created a table showing the good and bad effects not only of DDT, but automobiles, personal computers and cell phones.

The potato famine of 1845 in Ireland was triggered by the Clipper ship. The 5 weeks that used to be the time to cross the Atlantic was enough time for the potato fungus to die. Once the Clipper did the same trip in 12 days, the fungus was still alive and caused the Great Potato Famine in Ireland. Each innovation finally accepted by the public either eliminated or reduced existing jobs – but created whole new industries. Thus the “angst flavoring” I found in the book.

Conclusion

Perhaps the reason the book cover is in shades of black, is because there is a darker side to innovation. But if we didn’t have great thinkers and risk-takers, would society be better off or worse today? I would say, “bring on the innovation”!

Recommendation

If you want a thought-provoking experience looking at innovation, philosophy and morality, Scott Berkun has done a pretty good job bringing these related issues to our attention.