How do you know whether a hot technology will succeed or fail? Or where the next big idea will come from? The best answers come not from the popular myths we tell about innovation, but instead from time-tested truths that explain how we've made it this far. This book shows the way. 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

"For centuries before Google, MIT, and IDEO, modern hotbeds of innovation, we struggled to explain any kind of creation, from the universe itself to the multitudes of ideas around us. While we can make atomic bombs, and dry-clean silk ties, we still don't have satisfying answers for simple questions like: Where do songs come from? Are there an infinite variety of possible kinds of cheese? How did Shakespeare and Stephen King invent so much, while we're satisfied watching sitcom reruns? Our popular answers have been unconvincing, enabling misleading, fantasy-laden myths to grow strong." -- Scott Berkun, from the text. "Insightful, inspiring, evocative, and just plain fun to read it's totally great." -- John Seely Brown, former Chief Scientist of Xerox, and Director, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC); current Chief of Confusion "Small, simple, powerful: an innovative book about innovation." -- Don Norman, Nielsen Norman Group, Northwestern University; author of Emotional Design and Design of Everyday Things "The naked truth about innovation is ugly, funny, and eye-opening, but it sure isn't what most of us have come to believe. With this book, Berkun sets us free to try to change the world unencumbered with misconceptions about how innovation happens." -- Guy Kawasaki, author of The Art of the Start "Brimming with insights and historical examples, Berkun's book not only debunks widely held myths about innovation but also points the ways toward making your new ideas stick. Even in today's ultra-busy commercial world, reading this book will be time well spent." -- Tom Kelley, GM, IDEO; author of The Ten Faces of Innovation "This book cuts through the hype, analyzes what is essential, and more importantly, what is not. You will leave with a thorough understanding of what really drives innovation." -- Werner Vogels, CTO, Amazon.com "I loved this book. It's an easy-to-read playbook for anyone wanting to lead and manage positive change in their business." -- Frank McDermott, Marketing Manager, EMI Music Scott Berkun knows innovation. A member of the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft from 1994-1999, he is a full-time author at www.scottberkun.com and wrote the 2005 bestseller, The Art of Project Management (O'Reilly). He also teaches creative thinking at the University of Washington.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 40 Ratings

The Mythical Myths of Innovation - 2008-12-09
Reviewer Rating:
This book is structured as a set of chapters, each focusing on a supposed "myth of innovation" that the author then shoots down and explains why the myth isn't true.

The problem that I had was that I didn't believe in the myths in the first place. Instead, I felt that they were strawman arguments put up there to be easily disputed.

It would have been a heck of a lot more meaningful to me had I felt like he was challenging my thinking about the world. Instead, it seemed to me more that he was stating the obvious.

Because of this I was bored reading through this and felt like there was very little real content.

Are these *really* myths? Do people really believe these myths in the first place? Or are they mythical myths?

An absolute must read for scientists and engineers - 2008-10-18
Reviewer Rating:
At this point I can't say much that the other reviewers haven't already. Berkun makes a case study out of innovators and their innovations, exposing the real history behind the developments. There is no such thing as "Eureka!"...breakthroughs occur only after many long hours of development have been racked up (even in such "accidental" discoveries like the microwave oven), from you and all of your predecessors, all the way back to when we first crawled out of the ocean.

So much surrounding innovation is beyond the control of the innovator. Berkun takes 10 myths and picks them apart, piece by piece....this is an absolute must read for people in technical fields as well as basement inventors. It should set you straight before you go off and (foolishly) try to change the world with a (insert fancy new widget here). I found the book to be humorous and refreshing. I wish I would have come across this book before I started my graduate education, it would have changed my temperament to be more realistic when it comes to cutting-edge research at an earlier time (I got there anyway, but now I am old and cynical).

And for the record, this is not a cookbook for innovation. There is no such thing...and reading this book should explain to you why. Also, I second the comment about the colophon being worth the price of the book.

Great read - 2009-11-10
Reviewer Rating:
Great book, the myths are very real and the author presents lots of ideas to overcome the problems. Extra point for the style.

Luigui Moterani.

Great condition, Great Book - 2009-08-09
Reviewer Rating:
This book is 147 pages and came with a slip sleeve cover. It's an easy read. Not a very good book to write a paper about. Each chapter goes over a specific myth, and never clearly "confirms" or "denies" the myth. It is still a very good book, but I wouldn't go too far with it.

amazing book and a must read one - 2009-04-28
Reviewer Rating:
This book is great, it's the book of kind you will finish it in one reading session , it discuss the myths that realated to the history of innovation, how this innovation happen, and how this innovation spreads . Scott Berkun writing is very funny and informative. in each chapter he discuss one myth like (the magic moment, people love new ideas, good ideas are hard to find ... etc ) and how people spread this myths and what's the truth about all this myths, it's a must read book for who working in the innovation industry , and writers who spread the myths and anyone want to make the next breakthrough in his field , recommended .

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