How to Fly a Horse
The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery
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How to Fly a Horse
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Narrated by:
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Kevin Ashton
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By:
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Kevin Ashton
About this listen
As a technology pioneer at MIT and as the leader of three successful start-ups, Kevin Ashton experienced firsthand the all-consuming challenge of creating something new. Now, in a tour-de-force narrative 20 years in the making, Ashton leads us on a journey through humanity's greatest creations to uncover the surprising truth behind who creates and how they do it. From the crystallographer's laboratory where the secrets of DNA were first revealed by a long forgotten woman, to the electromagnetic chamber where the stealth bomber was born on a twenty-five-cent bet, to the Ohio bicycle shop where the Wright brothers set out to "fly a horse"; Ashton showcases the seemingly unremarkable individuals, gradual steps, multiple failures, and countless ordinary and usually uncredited acts that lead to our most astounding breakthroughs.
Creators, he shows, apply in particular ways the everyday, ordinary thinking of which we are all capable, taking thousands of small steps and working in an endless loop of problem and solution. He examines why innovators meet resistance and how they overcome it, why most organizations stifle creative people, and how the most creative organizations work. Drawing on examples from art, science, business, and invention, from Mozart to the Muppets, Archimedes to Apple, Kandinsky to a can of Coke, How to Fly a Horse is a passionate and immensely rewarding exploration of how "new" comes to be.
©2015 Kevin Ashton (P)2015 Random HouseListeners also enjoyed...
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5 out of 5 stars
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terrific book. Horrible recording.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good, but be careful
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3 out of 5 stars
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I was looking forward to it, but the voice 😵💫
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good info, over-the-top narration
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What listeners say about How to Fly a Horse
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- lewvsal
- 03-27-15
really fun to read(listen)
Would you listen to How to Fly a Horse again? Why?
Yes, great stories and subjects and interesting spin. Could learn more from listening again
What did you like best about this story?
Fascinating stories that you've probably never heard
Which scene was your favorite?
So many great ones it's hard to choose from. Only downsides were a section on gender equality and racial equality...i feel like most people reading this book are likely in support of both of those subjects
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- JUAN DAZA AREVALO
- 05-25-16
Amazing!
What made the experience of listening to How to Fly a Horse the most enjoyable?
This is a new born classic in creativity studies.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Ashton himself as a humble creator that inspires.
What does Kevin Ashton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Credibility and "in the trenches" experiences...
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It made me stand up and get my game together and create. Do, not talk: Show me!
Any additional comments?
If you are into product discovery this is a MUST in your life.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Thomas
- 02-18-16
Do away with paralysis
Kevin Ashton reveals the power of small incremental steps. A book for anyone feeling paralyzed by the enormity of their goals.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Robert F. Jones
- 11-27-16
Personal
Any additional comments?
Good to read when beginning a long, challenging problem.
Contrary to Kuhn's 'paradigm shift'(although incorporates this as an example) - proposes iterative progression of major ideas. No big leaps, all incremental. Some examples glorified and not historically accurate and story incomplete(angiogenesis). Question accuracy of some of the other stories(Dyson 5000 prototypes in 10 years, so 500 per year, more than one every single day?).
Point is well-taken - keep at it.
Experienced practitioners make it look easy because of the countless hours spent building the foundation.
Even 'flashes of insight' are iterative.
Makes a good argument that things don't happen spontaneously, but after long, hard work.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Richard Hay
- 06-29-15
A must for all in business
As an inventor with over 25 patents I found this book useful and enlightening. It explains a lot of behavior I have witnessed in my career.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- cyberbaguioboy
- 03-28-22
Stories were interesting
This is a collection of stories, stringed together to explain the different aspects of creativity. It is quiet long, at least 62 chapters of content broken down into smaller parts. Overall, these stories can also be found in other sources, which may provide in depth dives into each anecdote.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Scott Perry
- 12-17-22
Brilliant
Ashton presents an accessible and engaging case for creativity loaded with insights that informs and inspires.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mark Gibson
- 04-18-23
A compelling read for everyone, not just inventors
How to Fly a Horse, the Secret History of Creation, Invention and Discovery by Kevin Ashton, was published in 2016 and is still fresh today.
Who is Kevin Ashton? He is the person who coined the phrase the “Internet of Things” IoT in 1999 when experimenting with Internet-connected RFID tags on lipstick products for Proctor and Gamble for better inventory management.
Kevin founded the Auto-ID Centre at MIT and founded multiple successful startups in the field.
I loved listening to How to Fly a Horse on Audible, it is extremely well-read by the author. It is entertaining and is an essential read for anyone interested in developing their own potential as well as entrepreneurs and creators in any field of endeavour as it tells the story of human innovation for the past 2000 generations of homo sapiens.
Contrary to popular myth, great ideas or works of art like Kandinsky's Painting with White Border, don’t make it into the market as products through a flash of inspiration, whereby complete ideas are born whole and simply enacted by their creators. All innovation is built on prior innovation and the trial error and persistence of the creator/s.
What comes through in the numerous captivating stories in the book is the time and dedication successful creators required to bring ideas to life and the focus and determination to learn from experimenting and failing and continuing until a breakthrough is achieved.
James Dyson’s story is riveting. He was personally frustrated that as his Hoover vacuum cleaner bag filled up and its pores became clogged with dust, it lost suction. When driving past a sawmill, he saw a 30-foot cyclone separator that removed sawdust from air using centrifugal force. More than 5000 iterations in design and prototyping later, the Dyson DC-01 cyclone vacuum was perfected and it changed vacuum cleaner design forever. Getting the innovation to market and becoming a household brand is another story and he nearly went bankrupt doing it. Today his net worth is estimated at $26 billion.
I found Rosalind Franklin’s story particularly moving. She earned a PhD from Cambridge and was an X-Ray Crystallographer, one of the few careers in science open to women. Ashton traces the origins of prior innovation that led her to discover and capture the first image, photo 51 of the double helix of DNA in 1952 while at Kings College in London. Unfortunately, without Franklin’s knowledge, her collaborator, Wilkins showed the photograph to Watson and Crick who were also working on a chemical model of DNA, and they published their work on DNA in 1953. In 1962, Watson, Crick and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, four years after Franklin’s death.
Not everyone is a Rosalind Franklin or James Dyson, but the core idea in the book is that everyone is capable of being creative, it is an essential human trait, and creation is essential to our survival as a species. What prevents most people from creating, be it a new blog article, a new song, a new recipe, a new drug, or a new cybersecurity approach is the fact that they don’t get started. Or, if they do get started, they give up at the first hurdle.
A riveting and scholarly book that will reward the reader with a huge dividend for the time to read it. Highly recommended!
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- Joshua Lohrman
- 08-15-15
Very interesting and concise
Great story, backed by scientific studies along with some very interesting anecdotal stories and examples.
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- Detroiter
- 07-02-15
This book motivated me with real life
I like how the author tore down the facade of genius through relative and interesting stories.
The narration is superb. The tonality is fitting but not obtrusive.
If you struggle with coming to grips with your own creativity, this book will help.
Ervin
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