Skip to Content
Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond
book

Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

by Alan Axelrod
February 2008
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
192 pages
4h 1m
English
Jossey-Bass
Content preview from Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

3.12. Lesson 24: Make Defects Their Own Remedy

As a telegrapher, Edison achieved competence rather than mastery. He became a journeyman, not a genius, of the code key. Yet he was never content with confinement to journeyman work. For telegraphers in the 1860s and 1870s, receiving and transcribing long, complex newspaper stories was work reserved for the true masters, experts who had achieved consistent speed and accuracy.

Edison found it very hard to keep pace with these messages, but instead of despairing, he found in his weakness a source of strength, a spur to innovation. As noted in Lesson 17, one avenue of innovation Edison pursued was nontechnical. He developed a unique style of small, fast, highly legible handwriting. In addition to this ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

Business Brilliant - Surprising Lessons from the Greatest Self-Made Business Icons

Business Brilliant - Surprising Lessons from the Greatest Self-Made Business Icons

Lewis Schiff

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780787994594Purchase book