My dive into 'How to Fly a Horse' by Kevin Ashton

I completed Kevin Ashton's book yesterday, and I found it quite engaging. The author, a British engineer, played a key role in standardizing RFID technology. Additionally, he is credited with coining the term Internet of Things (IoT) and launching multiple startups in this domain.

In this book, the author talks about being creative and says that it's not just for special geniuses. He believes anyone can be creative, but it takes a lot of hard work and time. So, instead of waiting for a genius idea, you just need to start doing something creative :)

The book has nine parts, each with its own theme and story about a person from history. These stories show the main ideas of each part. Let's quickly go through these parts.

1. Creating Is Ordinary

The recurring theme here is the story of Edmond, who was a young slave and, in the mid-19th century, learned a method for vanilla pollination.

Before that, vanilla only grew in Mexico, where insects were responsible for pollination. In all other places, vanilla plants grew but didn't produce the pods used for spices. Essentially, Edmond, without any formal education, devised a pollination method that had stumped the best minds for years because vanilla spices were as valuable as gold:)

2. Counting Creators

Here, the author discusses Berlin in the 1930s and the works of Otto Selz and Karl Dunker, focused on thinking. Selz ended up in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and Dunker, after moving to the USA, wrote several works before taking his own life. The main idea of their works was that human thinking is usually iterative, appearing as a series of steps, rather than giant leaps with a eureka moment in between. Dunker explored thinking through experiments, such as the box and candle task, where participants had to verbalize their thoughts aloud.

By the way, this chapter includes a story about brainstorming, considered an excellent technique for generating new ideas in a group but often yielding fewer results than if each person thought individually and then combined the results. The quality of ideas in brainstorming is also generally lower than with pre-individual work. The right approach to group work can be seen in the initial steps of the Event Storming approach, where everyone first throws in their ideas about the events of the system (divergence), followed by a discussion and convergence process to reach a consistent version.

3. The Species of New

A fantastic chapter that delves into the challenges and sacrifices faced by individuals on the creative path, inventing something new. Two heroes are featured in this chapter:

1. Judah Folkman, a surgeon who long believed that cancer is linked to blood vessels and that treating cancer involves not only poison and radiation but also halting the growth of blood vessels feeding the tumor. He published his conceptual article in 1971, received the Israeli Wolf Prize in 1992 for it, and gained public recognition only in 1998.

2. Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian obstetrician who found an empirical connection between maternal deaths and the work of doctors who delivered babies after handling corpses. He suggested washing hands before surgeries, resulting in a decrease in deaths. However, he lost favor with colleagues, was eventually sent to a mental institution where he was mistreated, and died within weeks.

In essence, people who seek to change the status quo face resistance, which intensifies the more significant the changes. The author explores the nature of resistance and notes that the instinct of denial is an evolutionary mechanism balancing our need for the new with the necessity to preserve our lives.

The chapter concludes with the author stating,

Why is changing the world so difficult? Because the world doesn't want to change.

4. An End to Genius

The main character here is Robin Warren, a pathologist who examined bacteria in a patient's stomach, challenging the belief that they couldn't exist there. Later, he was joined by Dr. Barry Marshall in their research, and together, they grew these bacteria in a nutrient medium, proving that Helicobacter pylori is responsible for duodenal ulcers. What's intriguing in this story is not just that these scientists found the bacteria, but that everyone else overlooked it. The dogma that there are no bacteria in the stomach selectively blinded scientists, and their minds couldn't see the bacteria that they observed with their own eyes.

Upon receiving the Nobel Prize, Robin Warren quoted Sherlock Holmes:

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

In the same chapter, the author recalls Thomas Kuhn's groundbreaking work "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." This book discusses how scientific paradigms change, one replacing the other.

The main idea of the chapter is that:

Seeing doesn't mean understanding. Knowledge influences what we see, just as observation affects what we know.

To wrap up, the author tells the story of how the myth of Martian canals originated. An inexperienced astronomer, setting up his telescope incorrectly, observed canals on Mars, which were reflections of blood vessels in his own eyes. However, the legend was already spun by newspapers and science fiction enthusiasts :)

5. To give credit where it's due.

The main character in this chapter is Rosalind Franklin, with secondary roles played by female scientists who often didn't receive recognition for their merits. Rosalind was a crystallographer who determined the structure of a virus, took an image of DNA, and planned to write about its structure. However, her supervisor took her image without permission, and shared it with colleagues, and the three gentlemen jointly published a paper on the double helix, receiving Nobel Prizes, while Rosalind was left uncredited and died of cancer at 37.

The chapter then explores the structure of the scientific world, vividly presenting the Matthew Effect:

"For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them."

Harriet Zuckerman conducted research that identified this effect. In interviews with 41 Nobel laureates, one of them remarked,

"The world is very interesting in terms of recognizing someone's achievements. Fame will most likely go to someone who is already known."

Interestingly, Harriet herself experienced the Matthew Effect, though the term was coined by the more famous sociologist Robert Merton. They worked together, and later, Harriet married him.

It's intriguing that all great discoveries are built on the foundations laid by previous generations, not solely due to giants, as reflected in the famous Isaac Newton meme:

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

When Newton wrote this phrase in his letter, it was already a cliché, and the same sentiment about giants had been expressed by others traced back 500 years earlier. Yet, all the credit for this phrase is attributed to Isaac Newton.

The chapter concludes with the idea that human survival relies on creation, so creators should not be restricted, and:

"The more creators, the more fruits of their creativity. Equality brings justice to some and prosperity to all."

6. The Chain of Consequences

The main character in this chapter is William Cartwright, the owner of a textile factory in the early 19th century, and the anti-heroes are the Luddites. The Luddites fought against machines, which they believed would take away their jobs, while William fought for technological progress in his specific factory. However, both sides were unaware of the chain of consequences triggered by this process, and as production became more complex, workers would receive more for their labor and have more rights :)

Another chain of consequences is the globalization of supply chain components needed for virtually everything. The author describes the logistics cycle required to produce and deliver a bottle of Coca-Cola to his neighborhood store. In the end, it turns out that without the coordinated efforts of half the world, it's not feasible.

7. Gas in Your Tank

This exciting chapter is dedicated to how creators work to achieve outstanding results. The main character here is Woody Allen, a highly prolific scriptwriter, director, and actor. Moreover, Woody is not interested in recognition; he doesn't chase fame and awards – his goal is to entertain people, and that's why he is always at work.

In this chapter, the author talks about experiments confirming that creativity aimed at earning money or gaining recognition falls short of what comes from within a person, driven by their own will and desire. Ultimately, a series of experiments showed that creativity depends on whether there was a choice to participate, and whether there was a reward or not.

As a result, the level of creativity in the outcomes varied:

• The most creative solutions were proposed by the group with a choice and a reward.
• The most mundane solutions were suggested by the group with no choice but with a reward. The study's authors linked the lack of creativity to high pressure due to the expectation of results.

In this chapter, the author delves into the working habits of creators and explores the concept of a creative crisis.

Ultimately, the author arrives at two truths, and the first one is:

Great creators work regardless of desires, moods, or the presence of inspiration. Work must be a chronic habit, not a sudden flare-up. Success doesn't fall into one's lap; it comes gradually.

Interestingly, I grasped this only by the age of 20 :) Before that, everything seemed too easy for me.

The second truth about a creative crisis is that:

Internal motivation is the only true motivation. Flashes of inspiration are external factors that arise and disappear without our participation. Creative power must come from within. A creative crisis stems from expecting some external event, but in reality, it's just embellished procrastination.

Creativity is a passion for something that turns into a dependency, transforming us for the better. This passion is what fuels us.

It's worth noting that many struggle with the challenge of getting started. They want to achieve the perfect result right away, but it doesn't happen that way. Those who have embarked on their creative journey simply start working and then iteratively improve what they've produced.

No heuristics or flashes of inspiration. Innovations are what remain after failures.

8. Creating Organizations

This chapter explores how to make the innovation process work within an organization. The Lockheed Martin company and designer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson serve as a case study. In late 1943, Johnson assembled a team and designed the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star jet in just three months as a response to the German Messerschmitt Me.262 jet.

Lockheed Martin's culture was characterized by more than just debates over technical projects. They used the phrase "Show me" as a trigger, indicating that, to resolve disputes, an experiment needed to be conducted. The emphasis was on creating prototypes and testing them in a wind tunnel. Clarence began his career by criticizing the company's new aircraft as an intern, and instead of being fired, he was asked to demonstrate what the actual problem was — and he succeeded.

Another example is the collaboration of puppeteers Jim Henson and Frank Oz, creators of Sesame Street. Their duo worked so well that it seemed like magic.

The chapter also discusses the collaboration of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, who together come up with plots for each new episode of the animated series every week.

The author then delves into analyzing these examples, emphasizing that organizations are made up of people and their interactions. People interact not only rationally but also through rituals influenced by context and culture.

In conclusion, people can read this context and culture, distinguishing between what is said and what is done. For example, a company's CEO may talk endlessly about innovation and its importance, but if they don't allocate time and budget for it, the message is clear. People might voice support for changes in words, but in reality, they won't take a step toward something new.

9. Farewell, Genius

This chapter is dedicated to Francis Galton and his infamous book, which laid the foundation for eugenics, inspiring Hitler's division of people into the Aryan race and others destined for concentration camps. In this book, Galton defined genius as:

"Genius is an eminently endowed man."

Ultimately, this definition does not withstand criticism, and according to modern data:

"Innate abilities exist in all people, and this does not determine success... Galtonian genius has no place in the 21st century not because talents are unnecessary, but because we know: they do not exist."

The author returns to the original ancient Roman meaning of the word "genius," which meant "spirit" or "soul." The conclusion is that creativity is as natural for humans as flying is for birds. It is our nature and our spirit. The chapter ends with the following phrase:

"In all stories of creators, the same truths are spoken: creativity is an incredible phenomenon, but the creators themselves are only human; all the good within us can overcome all the bad within us; progress is not an inevitable consequence but an individual choice. Necessity does not give birth to innovation. We create them."