Inventology summary

Have you ever spent months or even years with a nagging problem – and then, one random day, hit upon an ingenious solution and exclaimed, “Why didn’t I think of this before?!”

Well, don’t feel bad. Complete understanding of a problem usually only comes with repetition.

Do you ever have the feeling that you’re blessed with good luck? If that’s the case, you might be great at finding solutions.

Psychology professor Richard Wiseman suggests that people who feel lucky are more observant and better at identifying useful solutions.

Did you know that Viagra was actually invented by accident? In fact, many medical discoveries are stumbled upon on paths that scientists thought would lead to something else. And these days discovering something by accident has never been easier.

This is because we live in the digital era.

Did you know that there’s a color code for the brownies in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream? It’s true, and it was generated using a system that was created out of nothing.

This invention dates back to the 1960s, when Lawrence Herbert was co-owner of a printing company called Pantone.

Wayne Gretzky was perhaps the greatest ice-hockey player ever. And there was a secret to his success: he always went where the puck was heading, not where it had been.

This is exactly what you need to do when inventing. It’s called forecasting, and it’s no easy task.

The mind is a powerful tool and you can use it to conjure up your ideas and inventions. Many of our greatest inventors use their imagination to envision their ideas before they sketch them out.

Someone famous for taking this approach: Nikola Tesla.

Chances are you probably haven’t heard of John Harrison. He was an English carpenter and clockmaker who solved a problem for the British Parliament in 1714 and won £20,000 – the equivalent of about £2 million in today’s money.

Harrison’s story shows us that it’s often people outside of a specific industry that find the best solutions for its problems.