How Innovation Works

Who This Book Is For

The ideal reader is a builder with curiosity wider than their industry: a founder, product manager, policy shaper, engineer, clinician, or operator who wants to make useful things spread, not just invent them. They value evidence over slogans, care about cost-per-function and reliability, and are comfortable with trial-and-error. They enjoy case studies that link gadgets to systems—grids, standards, supply chains—and prefer bottom-up stories to grand plans. Skeptical of ‘lone genius’ myths, they like seeing how teams, users, and luck shape outcomes. They’re impatient with permission costs but willing to learn how rules and incentives can unlock diffusion. They keep a notebook, track learning curves, and ask “what’s the bottleneck?” more than “what’s the headline?” They might work in a safety-critical or regulated domain and want pragmatic ways to iterate. Above all, they’re optimistic, but not credulous—hungry for a playbook that turns curiosity into compounding improvements.

Book Details