Great Story About American Innovation In Solving Problems
595897
I really enjoyed the book. It's a great story about how the medical home discovery was on two separate tracks that converge to form a workable solution to today's broken healthcare system. On one track was IBM with their most advanced thinkers in the US developing the best model for US primary care and on the other track is Dr. Anderson who unaware of the effort at IBM was actually figuring out how to make it work in a real life primary care office. I've heard so many stories of how difficult it is to make the medical home model work in the traditional primary care office. Dr Anderson's model of a new way to see patients is anything but traditional. He and his team have proven that the medical home concept can be successfully implemented and he wants to share that knowledge with others. I would recommend this book to any physician or patient concerned about finding a solution to our ever growing healthcare crisis.
4060127
This is one of my favorite books that I have ever read. This book gives a summary about why America is on the decline and it gives solutions to how to fix it. When I watch all the news on MSNBC, CNN, and C-Span, the elected officials argue about the same issues on whether our government should raise taxes or cut spending. Both Parties are not even focus on fixing the real issues that will get this country back on track. Dylan Ratigan provides real solutions to fixing our biggest problems. Thank you for taking the time for writing this great book. I will read it again because I like it that much.
35670
I agree with Seth - everyone in America should read this book. Really.

The author, Ken Watanabe, who is a former managerial consultant with McKinsey, has written a great primer on problem solving that is useful for business decisions, and everyday problems.

The examples are written using kid stories, which makes it fun, and provide the tools to start making problem solving an everyday behavior in life.

Some may complain that there is not enough depth, but they would be missing the bigger picture.  It is not how much you are 'given' in a book, but rather how much is actually taken or understood - the transference of knowledge.  Watanabe's book provides the frameworks for everyday problem solving that can be applied from the simple to the complex, and that's what makes it worthwhile.

Be a Problem Solver. Read this book.
2526873
"Closing the Innovation Gap" reads wonderfully -- so well, that I was able to finish reading this book in one weekend!  The author has a chatty style that makes me think I am hearing the author speak the words on the page. More importantly, there is a serious message here, one we need to heed. The United States must decided it can afford to support and sustain innovation, an engine that drives the economy.

Prof. Richard N. Zare
Department of Chemistry
Stanford University
4652685
I definitely enjoyed this book.  I love the way the geeks of the world are portrayed as heroes freeing content from the evil empires.  This is a great history lesson with a blueprint for how we can make things continue to improve and to encourage more innovation.  It's too bad the video industry seems to be going in the other direction (such as Comcast ripping Vs. from DirecTV and MSG ripping away NHL HD feeds due to an infantiile dispute).  With greater freedom comes innovation.  Hopefully, in a decade, we will be reading the sequel about the breakup of the TV and video comglomerates!
1149581
Like all of McCullough's books, it's very well written and researched, but more than that, it's a great story.  There is so much more to know about Wilbur and Orville Wright than I realized.  These guys really were geniuses, and not only that, they really worked hard and approached their goal with a plan in mind.  They identified the challenges and ways to meet those challenges, i.e. wing design and how to control an aircraft based on their observation of birds in flight.  And once they had a workable flying machine, they had a further challenge in getting anyone to pay attention.  They were flying around their airfield about 15 miles outside of Dayton, Ohio, and the newspaper editor there couldn't be bothered to send a reporter out to see.  The editor said, in retrospect, "I guess we were just plain stupid."
2127808
Great read about a key engineering effort. The issue pertaining to sea level or locks was very interesting to read
1388422
Clayton Christensen is the best author when it comes to innovation.
The book is interesting. I think the issue is of great importance and a more detailed and elaborated mathematical aproach book is required.
2792449
What a great book to learn a little bit about Americana!  Anyone interested in any American history will definitely enjoy reading this.  The enginuity of the inventors of these patent models is amazing.  This is a very unique book.
1165034
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and examining how different approaches to innovation can be made. Many people only associate innovation with technology and this book reframes our predetermined thoughts of what and what isn't innovation. From this book, I have used an innovation mindset in a variety of perspectives (personal and professional) and learned to approach situations and solutions in a completely different way.
This book is very easy to read and mixed with a variety of stories and lessons that the authors have personally experienced.
An easy and enjoyable read.
2658373
When your country is in trouble and being run into the ground by Washington bureaucrats, were talking people who do not value the principles this country was founded on, what better way to handle it than to bring back some of the great figures of Americas past to weigh in on what is going on in the country they helped to forge. Though the premise is farfetched, when you read this story you may actually wished this exciting adventure was true, that these giants of our past history could come back and give Congress and this President a piece of their mind, which they actually do in this powerful and fantastic novel. Loved this story! Frankly, it should be required reading in all schools across America. Fast paced and entertaining as well as educational. CS Bennett, you're right on with this one.
2392177
Great book good for any Engineer and problem solving.
1999477
As a kid I remember feeling uninspired because there were genius' out there, and I wasn't one of them.

*How can I ever amount to anything when competing with such people?*

Although there are people with amazing mental abilities, most of the people I now consider a genius have no special mental ability, just determination and hard work which enabled their breakthroughs.

I wanted to read this book because I spend a significant amount of time learning and doing work, and I figured this book would inspire me to stay along the same path. This book did indeed do what I wanted it to do, but the book covered a lot more as well.

We tend to attribute innovation to a moment's insight or a lucky accident, but the true story behind innovation is much more exciting than the false stories we believe. There is no magic element which allowed past innovations to happen, simply hard work. Hard work which is based upon, and combined with existing hard work. Everyone that does hard work makes mistakes, encounters obstacles, and has failures. The people who succeed are the people that embrace these mistakes and take the opportunity to learn from them.

This book inspires the reader to not only passively consume information and knowledge, but to be a creator instead.
This book also covers many other topics surrounding ideas and innovations including reasons why ideas fail and succeed. An idea needs to be able to fit its surrounding environment for it to succeed, and as an innovator we need to frame the correct problems to solve before trying to solve them.

The author (Scott Berkun) does an excellent job of not blindly giving his opinion, but backing up his claims with sources and situations throughout history.
3127650
Love this picture book! The story covers the tenets of grit and creativity along with a chance to relate some American women engineers. I'm using it in a STEAM unit with middle schoolers as an intro to these concepts. Never too old to be read to :)
256818
What a great book!  There has been a lot of academic work written on innovation, but this was a truly insightful and pragmatic view of innovation obviously written by someone who has done innovation in corporate America.  It was a pleasure to see how this complex topic was turned into a series of bite size chunks that could be easily absorbed and understood along with practical ways to think about innovation in your own environment.  For anyone that is attempting to do innovation or has been frustrated with understanding how to get their company to be innovative, this book will help you think about innovation and give you the tools to give your innovation the best chance for being successful.
2370742
This wonderful book fills a hole in American history that's been open too long. Instead of treating great figures as saints or unapproachable geniuses Hofstadter gives a realistic picture of what they believed and what they stood for. More than that he points to the philosophic and cultural continuity that these figures embodied, struggled with, and sometimes redefined. It's as much about how the greater American view on work and indivdualism evolved from the founding as about the men who made it. Also, kind of inadvertantly, the author weaves in a history of the American liberal idea and how Jeffersonian liberalism stressing free markets, small business, and individualism, was transformed into New Deal liberalism. He argues that the transformation wasn't a betrayal but was instead a development based on necessary responses to an economically and socially changing world. Enjoy!
3181841
US History Famous US Inventors is a great read for 5th graders wanting to learn about some of the great inventors in America.  This book highlights some of top inventors giving lots of information about who they were and their inventions. You will learn about more commonly known inventors such as Samuel Morse to those a young learner may learn for the first time such as Charles Goodyear.  Each Inventor is shown with his picture as well as a photo of their invention. This is great book to not only teach through reading but also visualization.  I great add to any homeschool teaching or a student just wanting to learn history of American Inventors. I received this at a discount for my honest review.