Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure
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Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure
$23.57
Sale price
$23.57
Regular price
$25.93
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Description
From the New York Timesbestselling author, a new volume on the history of human ingenuityand its attendant breakthroughs and busts.Included in BILL GATESs 2023 Holiday Reading List?Included in Lit Hubs Most Anticipated Books of 2023?Included in The Next Big Idea Clubs February 2023 MustRead Books??Every Smil book that I own is marked up with lots of notes that I take while reading. Invention and Innovation is no exception. Even when I disagree with him, I learn a lot from him...he always strengthens my thinking.?Bill Gates, Gates NotesThe world is never finished catching up with Vaclav Smil. In his latest and perhaps most readable book, Invention and Innovation, the prolific authora favorite of Bill Gatespens an insightful and factfilled jaunt through the history of human invention. Impatient with the hype that so often accompanies innovation, Smil offers in this book a cleareyed corrective to the overpromises that accompany everything from new cures for diseases to AI. He reminds us that even after we go quite far along the inventiondevelopmentapplication trajectory, we may never get anything real to deploy. Or worse, even after we have succeeded by introducing an invention, its future may be marked by underperformance, disappointment, demise, or outright harm.Drawing on his vast breadth of scientific and historical knowledge, Smil explains the difference between invention and innovation, and looks not only at inventions that failed to dominate as promised (such as the airship, nuclear fission, and supersonic flight), but also at those that turned disastrous (leaded gasoline, DDT, and chlorofluorocarbons). And finally, most importantly, he offers a wish list of inventions that we most urgently need to confront the staggering challenges of the twentyfirst century.Filled with engaging examples and pragmatic approaches, this book is a sobering account of the folly that so often attends human ingenuityand how we can, and must, better align our expectations with reality.
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This book is sold in used condition unless explicitly stated as new.
Condition is graded and described accurately. Some books may contain
previous owner's markings, highlights, or inscriptions. This product
may contain chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer
or reproductive harm. For more information visit
www.P65Warnings.ca.gov
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