Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure

Books

From the New York Times-bestselling author, a new volume on the history of human ingenuity-and its attendant breakthroughs and busts. Included in BILL GATES's 2023 Holiday Reading List Included in Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2023 Included in The Next Big Idea Club's February 2023 Must-Read Books "Every Smil book that I own is marked up with lots of notes that I take while reading. Invention and Innovation is no exception. Even when I disagree with him, I learn a lot from him...he always strengthens my thinking." -Bill Gates, Gates Notes The world is never finished catching up with Vaclav Smil. In his latest and perhaps most readable book, Invention and Innovation, the prolific author-a favorite of Bill Gates-pens an insightful and fact-filled jaunt through the history of human invention. Impatient with the hype that so often accompanies innovation, Smil offers in this book a clear-eyed corrective to the overpromises that accompany everything from new cures for diseases to AI. He reminds us that ...