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

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018 — 276 p. — ISBN: 978-0-544-32400-8.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. 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.Problem finding
Martian Jet Lag
User-Inventors
Someone Else’s Shoes
The Future of Feedback
Discovery
Super-Encounterers
Data Goggles
Building an Empire Out of Nothing
Photos
Prophecy
The Pong Effect
The Wayne Gretzky Game
The Mind’s R&D Lab
How to Time-Travel
Connecting
The Go-Betweens
Zones of Permission
Holistic Invention
Empowerment
Paper Eyes
Tinkering with EducationNotes