NOTES
CHAPTER 1: WISING UP ABOUT A SMARTPHONE
3 the remarkable case of George Hotz: “Machine Politics,” by David Kushner, New Yorker, May 7, 2012, pp. 24–30.
9 earn degrees in science or engineering: “The Electrifying Edison,” by Bryan Walsh, Time, July 5, 2010.
9 50.7 percent of new patent grants: “Ben Franklin, Where Are You?” by Michael Arndt, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, December 28, 2009 and January 4, 2010, p. 29.
10 as far into the future as you can imagine: Conversations with Leading Economists: Interpreting Modern Macroeconomics by Brian Snowden and Howard R. Vane (Edward Elgar Publishing, 1999), p. 310.
11 dumped into the Gulf every four days: “The Poisoning,” by Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone, August 5, 2010.
12 sensed a sudden change in pressure: “Robots Working 5,000 Feet Underwater to Stop Flow of Oil in Gulf of Mexico,” by Campbell Robertson and Clifford Krauss, New York Times, April 26, 2010.
13 titled “America Goes Dark”: “America Goes Dark,” by Paul Krugman, New York Times, August 8, 2010.
17 according to United Nations statistics: “Despite China’s Might, U.S. Factories Maintain Edge,” by Paul Wiseman, Associated Press, February 1, 2011.
CHAPTER 2: TINKERING AT THE BIRTH OF A NATION AND BEYOND
20 dismiss him as mere tinkerer: Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, 2003), p. 129.
21 “ . . . the ruts their fathers trod”: George Washington: Farmer: Being an Account of His Home Life and Agricultural Activities by Paul Leland Haworth (Bobbs Merrill Company, 1915), p. 6.
22 “and found She answerd very well”: George Washington: Farmer by Paul Leland Haworth (2004–03–01). (Kindle location 739), public domain books, Kindle edition.
22 Potomac River as a route for commerce: The Grand Idea: George Washington’s Potomac and the Race to the West by Joel Achenbach (Simon & Schuster, 2004), p. 129.
23 limiting the value of their knowledge: Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner (Little Brown, 1974), p. 197.
24 had ever seen a canal lock before: Patowmack Company Canal and Locks by Ricardo Torres-Reyes (Division of History, Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, U.S. Department of the Interior: National Park Service, May 1, 1970).
26 printed the American Weekly Mercury: Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, p. 113.
27 job with William Hunter of Virginia: Ibid., p. 157.
30 “ . . . two, three weeks, a month”: Divided Highways by Tom Lewis (Viking Penguin, 1997), p. 6.
CHAPTER 3: CONTEMPORARY TINKERER FINDS HIS WAY
39 tinkerer traits at an early age: Reinventing the Wheel: A Story of Genius, Innovation, and Grand Ambition by Steve Kemper (HarperBusiness, 2003), p. 9.
40 particularly ones called thyristors: “The Big Deal: Inventor Dean Kamen,” by Victoria Barret, Forbes.com, March 31, 2010.
57 being made in American innovation: Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution Is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee (Digital Frontier Press, 2011).
CHAPTER 4: EDISON’S FOLLY REINVENTS TINKERING FOR THE MODERN AGE
62 telegraph communities in the nation: Edison: A Life of Invention by Paul Israel (John Wiley & Sons, 1998), p. 40.
64 according to biographer Randall Stross: The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World by Randall E. Stross (Crown, 2008), p. 13.
70 “ . . . would start sawing,” he explained: Edison, His Life and Inventions by Frank Lewis Dyer (Harper & Bros., 1910).
72 superior manual coordination to operate: Edison: Inventing the Century by Neil Baldwin (Hyperion, 1995), p. 82.
77 tinkering for the contemporary era: Edison: A Life of Invention, p. 167.
81 protect the country’s interests internationally: Soldiers of Reason: The Rand Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire by Alex Abella, (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008) p. 13.
81 committed itself to solve: Ibid., p. 54.
83 “ . . . What kind of payload?”: Ibid., p. 58.
86 “ . . . face the consequences of failure”: “Robert S. McNamara, Architect of a Futile War, Dies at 93,” by Tim Weiner, New York Times, July 7, 2009.
CHAPTER 5: MYHRVOLD’S MAGIC TINKERING FACTORY
91 geophysics and space physics: The Microsoft Way: The Real Story of How the Company Outsmarts Its Competition by Randall E. Stross (Basic Books, 1997), p. 54.
93 an offshoot of Intellectual Ventures: “Billionaire Nathan Myhrvold’s $625 Cookbook,” Bloomberg Businessweek, November 11, 2010.
100 “being used to sue companies that do”: “When Patents Attack,” National Public Radio, All Things Considered, July 26, 2011 broadcast.
102 returns it had registered so far: “Trolling for Suckers,” by Nathan Vardi, Forbes, August 8, 2011.
102 “ . . . the Harvard Business Review”: Funding Eureka!” by Nathan Myhrvold, Harvard Business Review, March 2010.
CHAPTER 6: WHEN TINKERING VEERS OFF COURSE
107 more promiscuously than ever: The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, by Matt Ridley (Harper, 2010) pp. 6, 352.
108 turbine plant in Schenectady, New York: “Remarks by the President on the Economy in Schenectady, New York,” whitehouse.gov, January 21, 2011.
110 the “Morgan mafia”: “The Dream Machine,” by Gillian Tett, Financial Times, March 25, 2006.
113 making commercial loans: “The $58 Trillion Elephant in the Room,” by Jesse Eisinger, Portfolio.com, October 15, 2008.
CHAPTER 7: THE TINKERER ARCHETYPE IS REBORN
123 the country’s main export: “Climate Change and the End of Australia,” by Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone, October 13, 2011, p. 57.
129 many of them children: “A Life of Its Own: Where Will Synthetic Biology Lead Us?” by Michael Specter, New Yorker, September 28, 2009, p. 56.
134 the Boston Consulting Group: “Google Tries Something Retro: Made in the U.S.A.,” by John Markoff, New York Times, June 27, 2012.
CHAPTER 8: PARC AND THE POWER OF THE GROUP
138 most successful industrial product in history: Dealers of Lightning : Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age by Michael A. Hiltzik (HarperCollins, 2004), p. 22.
140 computer science research program: “Space War,” by Stewart Brand, Rolling Stone, December 7, 1972, p. 52.
147 rather than an open one: Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology by Henry Chesbrough (University of Oxford Press, 2008) p. 5.
CHAPTER 9: A TRIO OF ALTERNATIVE TINKERING APPROACHES
160 now known as Rovio, on his own: “How Rovio Made Angry Birds a Winner (and What’s Next),” by Tom Cheshire, Wired, April 2011.
165 in less than an hour: “Jeanne Gang: The Art of Nesting,” by Stephen Zacks, Metropolis, June 2008.
CHAPTER 10: A DIFFERENT KIND OF SCHOOL
184 difficulty filling existing jobs: “A Sea of Job-Seekers, but Some Companies Aren’t Getting Any Bites,” by Darren Dahl, New York Times, June 27, 2012.
CHAPTER 11: CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ON TINKERING
188 doubles every nine years: http://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation.phtml.
189 more generalists than specialists: “Specialists vs. Generalists,” by Chuck Martin, CIO Magazine, April 5, 2007.
190 “ . . . famous gravel-mouthed clown?”: Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong by Gary Giddins (Da Capo, 2001), p. 6.
190 “ . . . take risks,” he said: “Innovation 101,” by Carolyn T. Geer, Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2011.
196 more than two hundred donors: “The Trivialities and Transcendence of Kickstarter,” by Rob Walker, New York Times, August 7, 2011.
INDEX
Abella, Alex
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)
All Things Considered radio program
Alto persona
l computer
“America Goes Dark” article (Krugman)
American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO)
American ingenuity
becomes science based
vs. corporate discipline
financial
perceived as failed with BP oil spill
American tinkering
and declining society, infrastructure
exemplified by BISTRO
exemplified by CDSs
favors physical, material objects
and Founding Fathers
as intrinsic tradition
Kamen’s perspective
as renewable resource
revival needed
successes disputed by Griffith
Angry Birds
Apple
and Angry Birds app
iPhone unlocked by Hotz
iPod
and Xerox’s Alto, Smalltalk
Architecture
Armstrong, Louis
ARPA. See Advanced Research Projects Agency
Artemisinin, synthetically generated
Asian financial crisis of 1997
AT&T Bell Labs. See Bell Labs
Atlas Shrugged (Rand)
Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention
Australia
AutoSyringe Inc.
Bacharach, Samuel
Baxter Healthcare
Bay of Pigs invasion
Beat the Dealer (Thorp)
Bell, Alexander Graham
Bell Labs
Bell Telephone Company
Berliner, Emile
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
BISTRO (broad index secured trust offering)
Blackberry phones
BP (British Petroleum)
Bradford, Andrew
Brain trusts
Brand, Stewart
Brandenburg, Karlheinz
Brightworks
Brin, David
Brooks, Fred, Jr
Brynjolfsson, Erik
Bush, George W.
Business
Edison fails to turn inventions into business
as motivation for inventions
technology companies develop products
Calahan, Edward
Canal construction and navigation
CDSs. See Credit default swaps
Chen, Perry
Chesbrough, Henry
China
Closed innovation paradigm
Cohen, David
Collaborative teams of tinkerers
creativity of
for innovations
of Intellectual Ventures
invention lab of Edison
more likely than individual inventors
PARC’s innovative groups
Squid Labs
workplaces reconfigured in small companies
Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs)
Collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs)
Collbohm, Franklin R.
Colvin, Geoff
Compact disks (CDs)
“Comparison of Airplane Systems for Strategic Bombing,” (RAND/Paxson)
Computer file sharing
Computer-aided design (CAD)
Computers
developed by PARC and Kay
early versions
as low-priced PCs in 1990s
operating systems by Myhrvold/Microsoft
simulation for testing ideas
Conservatives’ position in game theory
Copyright and Patent Clause of U.S. Constitution
Corporate labs
compared to Fraunhofer lab
fail to capitalize on innovations
Griffith’s perspective
minimize risk, unusual behavior
PARC
Xerox squanders innovations
See also Research labs as innovation centers
Corporations and companies
differences of managers, innovative engineers
financing tinkering, start-ups
focus on specialization
influenced by Edison’s brain trust
Counterinsurgency strategy
Crawford, Chris
Credit default swaps (CDSs)
Crowdfunding model
Cuban Missile Crisis
Cummings, Amos
Das, Satyajit
De Tocqueville, Alexis
Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout
Defense strategies of United States
DEKA Research
Demchak, William
Derivatives
Dialysis machines
Digital tinkering. See Virtual tinkering
Discovery
emphasizing self-discovery
and Kickstarter approach
and role of chance, accident
scientific
as state of mind
Doerr, John
E Ink
Economic collapse of 2008
lack of manufacturing blamed
leads to lower cost high-tech tools
linked to loss of tinkering spirit
technology replaces humans
Economy (United States). See also Unemployment
Edison, Thomas Alva
creates collaborative invention lab
as great man inventor
invents practical electrical light
Menlo Park workshop
principles
process stands in the way of success
recording device/phonograph invention
telegraph-related inventions
telephone-related experiments
Education
alternative and community schools
science students decline in US
teaching to the tests
traditional schools vs. Tulley’s schools
US students compared to developing world
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
Eisinger, Jesse
Electric light (practical)
Energy problems and solutions
Engineering
civil
declines in US, shipped overseas
distinct from management
educational trends
materials science
Environmental innovations
Exxon Valdez oil spill
Farmer, Moses
Farming
Federalism
50 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Child Do (Tulley)
Financial crisis. See Economic collapse of 2008
Financial engineering
contributes to economic collapse
creation of BISTRO
not protected through patents
perceived to increase returns while minimizing risk
Finland
FIRST competitions
“Five Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do” TED talk
Forbes magazine
Founding Fathers as tinkerers
Franklin, Benjamin
as prototype American tinkerer
establishes US Post Office
inventions listed
Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS)
French fries
Game theory
Gang, Jeanne
Gates, Bill
Germany
Giddins, Gary
Gilliland, Ezra
Gladwell, Malcolm
Good Morning America television program
Google
20 Percent Time Program
local manufacturing operations
Graphophones
Great man image
Griffith, Saul
background
focuses on environment, materials engineering
on tinkering worldwide
Hamilton, Alexander
Hancock, Peter
Harvard Business Review
Hasso Plattner Instit
ute of Design, Stanford University
Haworth, Paul Leland
Hayden Planetarium
Heart stents
Hed, Niklas
Hedging
Heselden, Jimi
Hewlett-Packard
Hotz, George
IBM
co-opts Xerox/PARC prototypes
farms out R&D to India
with laser printer market
managerial, technical, ladders
Iisalo, Jaakko
India
Information Processing Techniques Office
Information technology
Infusion pumps
Ingenuity. See American ingenuity
Innovation centers. See Collaborative teams of tinkerers
Innovations
begin with individuals, followed by support
created credit default swap
hindered by student debt
insecurity of other nations
rights of innovators favored by Germany
See also Technological innovations
Inside.com
Instructables.com
Insulin pumps
Intellectual Ventures
background
financial structure
produces inventions, patents
under patent troll criticism
Invention capital model
Inventions
as business, investments
distinct from tinkering
generated by corporate research groups
as subversive acts
through systems integration (Kamen)
Investor Derivatives Marketing
iPhone
Isaacson, Walter
J. P. Morgan Bank
Jacobson, Joseph
Jefferson, Thomas
Jobs, Steve
invents blue box
introduces iPhone
on Segway
and Xerox’s Alto computer, Smalltalk
Johnston, James D.
Josephson, Matthew
Kamen, Dean
background
on creative tinkering
on endangered innovations in US
iBOT wheelchair
infusion pumps, dialysis machines