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The Art of Invention
In this entertaining and insightful exploration of the process of invention, an experienced inventor vividly illustrates how great inventions embody three crucial characteristics--simplicity, elegance, and robustness.Whether you're an aspiring inventor or an experienced designer, the author's expertise, personal examples, and case studies offer detailed guidance on conceptualizing your ideas and turning them into reality. The author shows how ideas can come from a variety of sources such as the natural world, basic physical principles, life experience, or even chance observations. He examines how intuition and the harnessing of subconscious information are key ingredients for the inventive process.He concludes with an in-depth look at the business of invention and the typical inventor's toolkit. He addresses the real-world challenges of turning a good idea into a practical, marketable application, including patents, marketing, and entrepreneurship. He is candid about the realities of hard work and the need to learn from the inevitable mistakes along the way. Full of insights and practical guidance from a successful inventor and entrepreneur, this book will open new avenues of creativity for budding and accomplished inventors alike.
- GenresDesign
236 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2010
12 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 14, 2011
WHY I PICKED IT UP
Recommended by an old Product Design teacher.
NOW THAT I'VE READ IT:
A good book for any designer/inventor. I'd recommend it to students and colleagues alike, but I wouldn't say there is anything really special about the book.
Recommended by an old Product Design teacher.
NOW THAT I'VE READ IT:
A good book for any designer/inventor. I'd recommend it to students and colleagues alike, but I wouldn't say there is anything really special about the book.
to-read-if
October 11, 2011I bought this for a friend and he said he really enjoyed it. Maybe I can borrow it some time.
June 15, 2011
Great book for anyone interested in product design, inventing, or any kind of creative problem solving.
June 19, 2018
The book depicts the process of creative thought and innovation. Full of interesting stories behind ubiquitous innovations.
November 25, 2011
The Art of Invention: The Creative Process of Discovery and Design is a Technical Engineering Creativity book.
What makes one invention stand out from another? What makes one great and leaves others behind? What process do you need to follow when you invent something? How does one invent? Is it even possible to succeed? All of these questions and others are answered within these pages.
If you have an idea for a great invention but have no clue how to incorporate the plan, then this book will help you with the correct stepping stones in which to follow through.
With discussion on such topics as the paper clip, the history, the process and the uses of such a mundane looking contraption. The paper clip patent, its inventors and the aspirations are shared.
You will learn how to deal with problems in design, marketing and finances. With chapters on Design and Invention, Making It Happen, The Business of Invention and Creativity and the Brain just to name a few, this book shows you the exact process from the moment the idea is born until its final product.
Sigmund Freud once stated that the mind is an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water and this is true when you look at it from a creative process. We are not educated, for the most part, to be creative. From birth we are trained to use our brains in an analytical, problem-solving capacity; some people have ideas and no way to breach the creative process, this book shall help you overcome such obstacles.
I would give The Art of Invention a three out of five stars. I found the book to be dry in its approach and it lacked creativity in its explanation. I would've liked to have seen more pictorial examples of the methods the author was discussing as well as a few more examples of successful and unsuccessful inventions. However, I am not a engineer nor an inventor and I shall leave the guidance of this book up to the reader.
What makes one invention stand out from another? What makes one great and leaves others behind? What process do you need to follow when you invent something? How does one invent? Is it even possible to succeed? All of these questions and others are answered within these pages.
If you have an idea for a great invention but have no clue how to incorporate the plan, then this book will help you with the correct stepping stones in which to follow through.
With discussion on such topics as the paper clip, the history, the process and the uses of such a mundane looking contraption. The paper clip patent, its inventors and the aspirations are shared.
You will learn how to deal with problems in design, marketing and finances. With chapters on Design and Invention, Making It Happen, The Business of Invention and Creativity and the Brain just to name a few, this book shows you the exact process from the moment the idea is born until its final product.
Sigmund Freud once stated that the mind is an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water and this is true when you look at it from a creative process. We are not educated, for the most part, to be creative. From birth we are trained to use our brains in an analytical, problem-solving capacity; some people have ideas and no way to breach the creative process, this book shall help you overcome such obstacles.
I would give The Art of Invention a three out of five stars. I found the book to be dry in its approach and it lacked creativity in its explanation. I would've liked to have seen more pictorial examples of the methods the author was discussing as well as a few more examples of successful and unsuccessful inventions. However, I am not a engineer nor an inventor and I shall leave the guidance of this book up to the reader.
April 2, 2012
Finding inspiration to invent
This is a handy book to get your arms around the creative process of invention. Steven Paley comes from experience as an engineer, entrepreneur, and has taught as well. He describes many examples of products that we now use commonly in our lives, like the paper clip. While that example might appear totally and overly simplistic to most of us, it is actually a great way to set the theme of this book: invention is more art than science.
Albert Einstein said "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." And that's the realm Paley describes. It's not for the inventor to necessarily seek a solution to a problem with any other constraints. But to pick at a problem, leave it alone for a while, come back to it. And voila, usually as Paley points out, when you are least focused on the problem, a solution emerges....and it seems so simple, one is apt to blurt out "why didn't I think of that before?"
Indeed the mind works in odd ways. Paley's point is that an inventor is always trying to solve a problem even when he doesn't know it. It becomes a subconscious act of daily living. And that's why it's an art! But while he recommends ways to frame a problem to increase the odds of success, he readily describes many inventions that came about serendipitously.
But the author is correct to describe constraints that face inventors, completely apart from the invention process, including competition for funding internal and external, that requires business cases and marketing plans. This, as he points out, is not a book about those matters. The bottom line: Anyone can be an inventor, not just an engineer. But many ideas don't see the light because corporations don't see how they could be transformative to their business. And that is the ultimate invention.
This is a handy book to get your arms around the creative process of invention. Steven Paley comes from experience as an engineer, entrepreneur, and has taught as well. He describes many examples of products that we now use commonly in our lives, like the paper clip. While that example might appear totally and overly simplistic to most of us, it is actually a great way to set the theme of this book: invention is more art than science.
Albert Einstein said "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious." And that's the realm Paley describes. It's not for the inventor to necessarily seek a solution to a problem with any other constraints. But to pick at a problem, leave it alone for a while, come back to it. And voila, usually as Paley points out, when you are least focused on the problem, a solution emerges....and it seems so simple, one is apt to blurt out "why didn't I think of that before?"
Indeed the mind works in odd ways. Paley's point is that an inventor is always trying to solve a problem even when he doesn't know it. It becomes a subconscious act of daily living. And that's why it's an art! But while he recommends ways to frame a problem to increase the odds of success, he readily describes many inventions that came about serendipitously.
But the author is correct to describe constraints that face inventors, completely apart from the invention process, including competition for funding internal and external, that requires business cases and marketing plans. This, as he points out, is not a book about those matters. The bottom line: Anyone can be an inventor, not just an engineer. But many ideas don't see the light because corporations don't see how they could be transformative to their business. And that is the ultimate invention.
April 3, 2013
Terrific book to spark your own creativity.
April 14, 2013
Simple read. Great examples of simple inventions.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews