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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

8.9. Lesson 73: Try a Kaleidoscopic Approach

Well-meaning parents and teachers tell us to finish one thing before we begin another. It is advice so common that it is seldom questioned. Edison rejected it outright.

No one attacked a problem as persistently as Thomas Edison, but he always worked simultaneously on multiple projects. An attorney for Western Union, under whose auspices Edison worked early in his career, marveled at what he called his "remarkable kaleidoscopic brain. He turns that head of his and these things come out as in a kaleidoscope, in various combinations, most of which are patentable."

Edison was both stimulated and refreshed by working on more than one project at once. Moreover, this kaleidoscopic approach often allowed ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780787994594Purchase book