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One of my favorite books of all time.. I have gifted around 5 copies: https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Factory-Great-American-Innovation/dp/0143122797 https://www.a

by r_hanz 2y ago

One of my favorite books of all time.. I have gifted around 5 copies: https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Factory-Great-American-Innovation/dp/0143122797 https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Factory-Great-American-Innovatio...

voxadam 2y ago
Idea Factory is an excellent book, one of my favorites, I just finished rereading it a few weeks ago. I'd also recommend Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed[0] by Ben Rich.[1] Rich was the second director of Lockheed's Skunk Works and protégé of its founder and famed aerodynamicist Kelly Johnson.[2] The book covers the creation of the U-2 spy plane, SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 Nighthawk, stealth technology in general, and talks a bit about the F-22 Raptor. I'd recommend the book even if you're not super into aerospace or defense tech. It's amazing what the Skunk Works was able to achieve with such a small contingent of dedicated engineers, technicians, machinists, and managers for so little when left alone to do what they knew best. In my opinion, these days, the term 'skunk works' is all too often used to describe a company's secret R&D wing when it would be more appropriate to use it to describe a small walled off portion of a company with tenure, a place engineers and architects get to roam free and experiment without meddling and micromanagement, even if constrained by a limited budget. [0] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011M8DBI6 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011M8DBI6 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Rich_(engineer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Rich_(engineer) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Johnson_(engineer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Johnson_(engineer)
kqr 2y ago
I happened to read a couple of months ago and it is indeed very good. The author gives the impression of really caring about the subject and going in deeply on the parts they choose to touch.
vinnyvichy 2y ago
There is a lesser-known but still insightful book by Bernstein. https://www.amazon.com/Three-Degrees-Above-Zero-Information/dp/0451625293 https://www.amazon.com/Three-Degrees-Above-Zero-Information/... Backstory: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/october/three-degrees-above-zero https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/october/three-degrees-above-... My takeaway from that one is that Bell Labs' success relied on the common feeling that they were all contributing to the nation's survival and flourishing by supporting the core infrastructure role of the Bell System. (Compare with the cynicism of Googlers/Eric Schmidt)

by r_hanz 2y ago

voxadam 2y ago

Idea Factory is an excellent book, one of my favorites, I just finished rereading it a few weeks ago. I'd also recommend Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed[0] by Ben Rich.[1] Rich was the second director of Lockheed's Skunk Works and protégé of its founder and famed aerodynamicist Kelly Johnson.[2] The book covers the creation of the U-2 spy plane, SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 Nighthawk, stealth technology in general, and talks a bit about the F-22 Raptor. I'd recommend the book even if you're not super into aerospace or defense tech. It's amazing what the Skunk Works was able to achieve with such a small contingent of dedicated engineers, technicians, machinists, and managers for so little when left alone to do what they knew best. In my opinion, these days, the term 'skunk works' is all too often used to describe a company's secret R&D wing when it would be more appropriate to use it to describe a small walled off portion of a company with tenure, a place engineers and architects get to roam free and experiment without meddling and micromanagement, even if constrained by a limited budget. [0] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011M8DBI6 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011M8DBI6 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Rich_(engineer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Rich_(engineer) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Johnson_(engineer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Johnson_(engineer)

kqr 2y ago

I happened to read a couple of months ago and it is indeed very good. The author gives the impression of really caring about the subject and going in deeply on the parts they choose to touch.

vinnyvichy 2y ago

There is a lesser-known but still insightful book by Bernstein. https://www.amazon.com/Three-Degrees-Above-Zero-Information/dp/0451625293 https://www.amazon.com/Three-Degrees-Above-Zero-Information/... Backstory: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/october/three-degrees-above-zero https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/october/three-degrees-above-... My takeaway from that one is that Bell Labs' success relied on the common feeling that they were all contributing to the nation's survival and flourishing by supporting the core infrastructure role of the Bell System. (Compare with the cynicism of Googlers/Eric Schmidt)