Innovation starts with a problem whose solution sets in motion all kinds of unexpected discoveries. That's why you can draw a line from pendulums to punching the clock at a factory, from ice blocks to summer movie blockbusters, from clean water to computer chips. In the lively storytelling style that has made him a popular, bestselling author, Steven Johnson looks at how accidental genius, brilliant mistakes, and unintended consequences shape the way we live in the modern world. Johnson's "long zoom" approach connects history, geography, politics, and scientific advances with the deep curiousity of inventors or quirky interests of tinkerers to show how innovation truly comes about. His fascinating account is organised into six topics: glass, cold, sound, clean, time, light. Johnson's fresh exploration of these simple, single-syllable word concepts creates an endlessly absorbing story that moves from lightning strikes in the prehistoric desert to the herculean effort to literally raise up the city of Chicago to laser labs straight out of a sci-fi movie. In other words, it's the story of how we got to now!

 

This book has been graded for interest at 10+ years.

There are 176 pages in this book. It is a dictionary. A dictionary is a single-volume or multivolume reference work containing brief explanatory entries for terms and topics related to a specific subject or field of inquiry, usually arranged alphabetically (example: Dictionary of Neuropsychology). The entries in a dictionary are usually shorter than those contained in an encyclopedia on the same subject, but the word "dictionary" is often used in the titles of works that should more appropriately be called encyclopedias (example: Dictionary of the Middle Ages in 13 volumes). This book was published 2018 by Viking Books for Young Readers .

Steven Johnson is the bestselling author of eleven books, including Where Good Ideas Come From , Wonderland , and The Ghost Map . He's the host and co-creator of the Emmy-winning PBS/BBC series How We Got To Now , and the host of the podcast American Innovations . He lives in Brooklyn and Marin County, California with his wife and three sons.