Evan I. Schwartz writes and speaks about invention, innovation, and the impact of new technology on business and society. His latest book, Juice: The Creative Fuel That Drives World-Class Inventors explores the mix of unconventional thinking patterns that are practiced by some of the world’s most creative and successful inventors. Upon its publication, Evan joined the invention team at Walker Digital, an independent R&D laboratory in Stamford, CT, best known for creating priceline.com. Evan is the lab’s chief storyteller. Schwartz’ previous book, The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television (2002), tells the true story of Philo T. Farnsworth, the farm boy who invented electronic television in the 1920s.
Schwartz brilliantly explains “the creative fuel that drives world-class inventors” while explaining, also, that each of them followed a process by which to create possibilities. More specifically, by pinpointing problems to be solved, recognizing what are usually interconnected patterns, “channeling chance” (i.e. serendipity), eliminating or transcending boundaries, detecting barriers in order to remove or overcome them, recognizing and applying appropriate analogies, visualizing probable results, embracing each failure as a learning opportunity, “multiplying insights” as they reveal themselves, and at all times “thinking schematically” (i.e. cohesively). Yes, that’s a mouthful but is essentially what the process of invention involves. It bears striking similarities with how the human mind functions.
All of the inventors whom Schwartz discusses in this book channeled their creative “juice” the right way. By making new and unexpected connections, they produced that special form of creativity known as invention. According to Schwartz, there has never been a prior time when the need for inventions was greater, inventions that can alleviate and eventually eliminate the world’s problems in areas such as healthcare, nutrition, and education. It is Schwartz’s expressed hope that those who read this book will be better prepared to “turn on the juice” of their own inventiveness. “We know that brainstorms are electrical, and you need to have many of them if you want to change the world...So, let’s turn on the juice and see what shakes loose.”
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