How to Innovate

<p><b>What we can learn about fostering innovation and creative thinking from some of the most inventive people of all times--the ancient Greeks</b> <p/>When it comes to innovation and creative thinking we are still catching up with the ancient Greeks. Between 800 and 300 BCE they changed the world with astonishing inventions--democracy the alphabet philosophy logic rhetoric mathematical proof rational medicine coins architectural canons drama lifelike sculpture and competitive athletics. None of this happened by accident. Recognizing the power of the new and trying to understand and promote the conditions that make it possible the Greeks were the first to write about innovation and even the first to record a word for forging something new. In short the Greeks invented innovation itself--and they still have a great deal to teach us about it. <p/><i>How to Innovate </i>is an engaging and entertaining introduction to key ideas about--and examples of--innovation and creative thinking from ancient Greece. Armand D'Angour provides lively new translations of selections from Aristotle Diodorus and Athenaeus with the original Greek text on facing pages. These writings illuminate and illustrate timeless principles of creating something new--borrowing or adapting existing ideas or things cross-fertilizing disparate elements or criticizing and disrupting current conditions. <p/>From the true story of Archimedes's famous Eureka! moment to Aristotle's thoughts on physical change and political innovation to accounts of how disruption and competition drove invention in Greek warfare and the visual arts <i>How to Innovate </i>is filled with valuable insights about how change happens--and how to bring it about.</p>