-
Review of The Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun
The Myths of Innovation is one of the most insightful books I’ve read in a while. It should be required reading for anyone who works for a technology start-up or manages engineers.
The first part of the book presents 10 popular myths of how innovation and invention happen. Through re-telling of many popular invention stories, the author discounts all of my least favorite myths, including that innovation happens through magical epiphanies, that great ideas are instantly adopted, and that the best ideas win. He does this through an easy to read, story-telling style. Plus, he manages to include plenty of references to boost the credability of his arguments. In the second part of the book, he gives some direction of those who think of themselves as innovators. These include some ways to help put yourself in a state of mind that will boost your creative thinking, how to stay motivated in the face of the many roadblocks that stand in the way of your potential innovation, and some tips on how to pitch your ideas, whether your audience is your boss, potential investors, or others. There are many pieces of advice/motivation in this last section that I will come back to in the years to come. The kicker is the last chapter, which gives a list of other references that the author recommends, as pieces of further advice and/or motivation for innovators. This will form the basis of my continued reading list.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone that is either doing the innovation themself, or manages people who are innovating.
