Preface.
Introduction.
Lesson 1: Stop Thinking and Act Like a Genius.
1. Life Story of a Middle American.
2. Getting Your Hands Dirty.
Lesson 2: Experiment with Everything.
Lesson 3: Become a Boy of the Nineteenth Century.
Lesson 4: Knowing.
Lesson 5: See It.
Lesson 6: Working Bottom Up.
Lesson 7: Do the Thing Itself.
Lesson 8: Cut and Try.
Lesson 9: Know Properties, Not Theories.
Lesson 10: Understand Hands-On: Touch Everything.
Lesson 11: Miss No Detail.
Lesson 12: Know What’s Going on Inside.
3. How to Use Everything.
Lesson 13: Profi t from Disability.
Lesson 14: Lose No Idea.
Lesson 15: Be Exhaustive.
Lesson 16: Appreciate Your Ignorance.
Lesson 17: Sharpen Your Tools.
Lesson 18: Embrace Problems.
Lesson 19: Problems Are Directions.
Lesson 20: The Limits of the Problem Approach.
Lesson 21: Use Disaster.
Lesson 22: “No Experiments Are Useless”.
Lesson 23: Fertile Failure.
Lesson 24: Make Defects Their Own Remedy.
4. Investing.
Lesson 25: The Ideal Executive.
Lesson 26: Insure the Permanency of an Investment.
Lesson 27: Invest in Assets.
Lesson 28: Start Small, Scale Up.
Lesson 29: Build an Invention Factory.
Lesson 30: Support the Shop.
Lesson 31: Build on the Weakest Points.
Lesson 32: Become a Collector.
5. Entrepreneurship.
Lesson 33: Take a Reverse Inventory.
Lesson 34: Identify Markets.
Lesson 35: Defi ne Yourself.
Lesson 36: Innovate Without Inventing.
Lesson 37: Inspire Confidence.
Lesson 38: Take the Credit.
Lesson 39: Be Legendary.
Lesson 40: Invent Systems.
Lesson 41: Think Bigger.
Lesson 42: Let Research Lead.
Lesson 43: Don’t Stop Experimenting.
Lesson 44: Invite Distraction.
Lesson 45: Time It.
Lesson 46: Imagine the Future.
Lesson 47: Get Between.
6. Creating Your Customers.
Lesson 48: Get the News.
Lesson 49: Give Praise to the Dissatisfi ed Customer.
Lesson 50: Educate the Customer.
Lesson 51: Learn the Market.
Lesson 52: Niche Thinking: Find a Small Space to Make It Big.
Lesson 53: Offer an Edge.
Lesson 54: Move into a More Hospitable Environment.
Lesson 55: Sell Innovation.
Lesson 56: The Limits of Innovation.
Lesson 57: Become a Brand.
Lesson 58: No Such Thing as Overproduction.
7. Making Rain.
Lesson 59: Be Skeptical, Never Cynical.
Lesson 60: Get the Biggest Picture.
Lesson 61: Design What You Need.
Lesson 62: Create New Uses for Whatever You Have.
Lesson 63: “Guard Against Results”.
Lesson 64: Exploit the Unexpected.
8. Grinding It Out.
Lesson 65: Learn a Lesson from The Temperate Life.
Lesson 66: Know the Known.
Lesson 67: Want Some Real Labor? Try Thinking.
Lesson 68: “Genius Is 1 Percent Inspiration and 99 Percent Perspiration”.
Lesson 69: Work the Problem.
Lesson 70: Redesign.
Lesson 71: Don’t Stop with Version 1.
Lesson 72: The Two Masters.
Lesson 73: Try a Kaleidoscopic Approach.
Lesson 74: Exploit the Details.
Lesson 75: Speed.
Lesson 76: Plod.
Lesson 77: Unlimited Incentive.
Lesson 78: If At First You Do Succeed, Try Again Anyway.
9. Managing.
Lesson 79: Never Neglect Logistics.
Lesson 80: “Mean to Succeed”.
Lesson 81: Plan for Spontaneity.
Lesson 82: Create a Shop.
Lesson 83: Start a School.
Lesson 84: Make Creativity a Predictable Process.
Lesson 85: Create Standards.
Lesson 86: Subdivide, Delegate, Empower.
Lesson 87: Harvest Complaints.
Lesson 88: Favor Fluid Structures.
Lesson 89: Keep Score.
10. Faking Genius.
Lesson 90: Model It.
Lesson 91: Get on the Train.
Lesson 92: To Innovate, Imitate.
Lesson 93: Do It Better.
Lesson 94: Create by Analogy.
Lesson 95: Make the Problem the Solution.
Lesson 96: Analogy Again.
Lesson 97: Another Problem, Another Solution.
Lesson 98: New Wholes from Old Parts.
Lesson 99: Better to Elaborate Than Replace?
Lesson 100: Prefer Evolution to Revolution.
Lesson 101: Make the New Familiar.
Lesson 102: Work Beyond the Cutting Edge.
Appendix One: An Edison Chronology.
Appendix Two: Two Hundred Representative Patents.
Appendix Three: Suggested Reading.
The Author.
Index.
