The Myths of Innovation Quotes

“The Greeks were so committed to ideas as supernatural forces that they created an entire group of goddesses (not one but nine) to represent creative power; the opening lines of both The Iliad and The Odyssey begin with calls to them. These nine goddesses, or muses, were the recipients of prayers from writers, engineers, and musicians. Even the great minds of the time, like Socrates and Plato, built shrines and visited temples dedicated to their particular muse (or muses, for those who hedged their bets). Right now, under our very secular noses, we honor these beliefs in our language, as the etymology of words like museum ("place of the muses") and music ("art of the muses") come from the Greek heritage of ideas as superhuman forces.”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“The best lesson from the myths of Newton and Archimedes is to work passionately but to take breaks. Sitting under trees and relaxing in baths lets the mind wander and frees the subconscious to do work on our behalf. Freeman Dyson, a world-class physi- cist and author, agrees: “I think it’s very important to be idle...people who keep themselves busy all the time are generally not creative. So I am not ashamed of being idle.”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“In a recent survey, innovative people — from inventors to scientists, writers to programmers — were asked what techniques they used. Over 70% believed they got their best ideas by exploring areas they were not experts in”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“Howard H. Aiken, a famous inventor, said, “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.”[”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“The love of new ideas is a myth: we prefer ideas only after others have tested them.”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“Nearly every major innovation of the 20th century took place without claims of epiphany.”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“In this age, being seen as an “expert” may have little bearing on the “expert’s” ability to do the thing she is supposedly an expert in.”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“Professional management was born from the desire to optimize and control, not to lead waves of change.”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“The future never enters the present as a finished product, but that doesn’t stop people from expecting it to arrive that way.”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“Einstein said, “ Imagination is more important than knowledge,” but you’d be hard-pressed to find schools or corporations that invest in people with those priorities. The systems of education and professional life, similar by design, push the idea-finding habits of fun and play to the corners of our minds, training us out of our creativity.[117] We reward conformance of mind, not independent thought, in our systems — from school to college to the workplace to the home — yet we wonder why so few are willing to take creative risks.”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“One way to think about epiphany is to imagine working on a jigsaw puzzle. When you put the last piece into place, is there anything special about that last piece or what you were wearing when you put it in? The only reason that last piece is significant is because of the other pieces you’d already put into place. If you jumbled up the pieces a second time, any one of them could turn out to be the last, magical piece. Epiphany works the same way: it’s not the apple or the magic moment that matters much, it’s the work before and after”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“By idolizing those whom we honor, we do a disservice both to them and to ourselves…we fail to recognize that we could go and do likewise. — Charles V. Willie”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“Innovations often need to be explained in terms of the status quo, which is why automobiles are rated in horsepower and electric lights in”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“The chief cause of problems is solutions. — Eric Sevareid”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“Einstein once said, “If I had 20 days to solve a problem, I would take 19 days to define it,”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“It’s natural for people to protect what they know instead of leaping into the unknown, and managers are no exception. Managers might even be worse, as the politics they rely on to survive can make them more entrenched and defensive.”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“History can’t give attention to what’s been lost, hidden, or deliberately buried; it is mostly a telling of success, not the partial failures that enabled success.[31] Without at least imagining the missing dimensions to the stories, our view of how to make things happen in the present is seriously compromised.”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“Innovating comes at a price: it might be money, time, sanity, friends, or marriages, but there will definitely be one.”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation

“Developing new ideas requires questions and approaches that most people won’t understand initially, which leaves many true innovators at risk of becoming lonely, misunderstood characters.”
― Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation