Sign-In
Cart
The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most
Hardcover
Business GeneralEconomicsTechnology & Engineering
Publisher Price: $28.00
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 0525575685
ISBN13: 9780525575689
Publisher: Crown Currency
Published: Sep 8 2020
Pages: 272
Weight: 1.20
Height: 1.10 Width: 6.30 Depth: 9.30
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780525575689
Publisher: Crown Currency
Published: Sep 8 2020
Pages: 272
Weight: 1.20
Height: 1.10 Width: 6.30 Depth: 9.30
Language: English
Innovation is the hottest buzzword in business. But what if our obsession with finding the next big thing has distracted us from the work that matters most? The most important book I've read in a long time . . . It explains so much about what is wrong with our technology, our economy, and the world, and gives a simple recipe for how to fix it: Focus on understanding what it takes for your products and services to last.--Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media
It's hard to avoid innovation these days. Nearly every product gets marketed as being disruptive, whether it's genuinely a new invention or just a new toothbrush. But in this manifesto on thestate of American work, historians of technology Lee Vinsel and Andrew L. Russell argue that our way of thinking about and pursuing innovation has made us poorer, less safe, and--ironically--less innovative. Drawing on years of original research and reporting, The Innovation Delusion shows how the ideology of change for its own sake has proved a disaster. Corporations have spent millions hiring chief innovation officers while their core businesses tank. Computer science programs have drilled their students on programming and design, even though theoverwhelming majority of jobs are in IT and maintenance. In countless cities, suburban sprawl has left local governments with loads of deferred repairs that they can't afford to fix. And sometimes innovation even kills--like in 2018 when a Miami bridge hailed for its innovative design collapsed onto a highway and killed six people. In this provocative, deeply researched book, Vinsel and Russell tell the story of how we devalued the work that underpins modern life--and, in doing so, wrecked our economy and public infrastructure while lining the pockets of consultants who combine the ego of Silicon Valley with the worst of Wall Street's greed. The authors offer a compelling plan for how we can shift our focus away from the pursuit of growth at all costs, and back toward neglected activities like maintenance, care, and upkeep. For anyone concerned by the crumbling state of our roads and bridges or the direction our economy is headed, The Innovation Delusion is a deeply necessary reevaluation of a trend we can still disrupt.
Also in
Economics
Family, Fields, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in China's Social and Economic History, 1550-1949
Eastman, Lloyd E.
Paperback
$169.49
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shattered a Nation
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Hardcover
From $19.99
Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life
Mayyasi, Alex
Hosts of Npr's Planet Money
Hardcover
$26.99
1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World
Ahamed, Liaquat
Hardcover
$28.80
What Happened to Liberal Democracy?: Remaking a Politics of Shared Prosperity
Acemoglu, Daron
Hardcover
$28.80
Capitalism for All: Inclusive Economics and the Future-Proofing of America
Bryant, John Hope
Hardcover
$26.60
How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn't)
Moore Phd, Joseph S.
Hardcover
$28.80
Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal about How Markets Work
Roth, Alvin E.
Hardcover
$31.50
Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System--and Themselves
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Paperback
$21.85
Soccernomics (2026 World Cup Edition): Why European Men and American Women Usually Win--And American Men Don't (Yet)
Kuper, Simon
Szymanski, Stefan
Paperback
$20.89
Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York
Gottlieb, Dylan
Hardcover
$30.40
Market Wizards: The Next Generation: The World's Top Young Traders Reveal How They Beat the Market
Coyle, George F.
Schwager, Jack D.
Hardcover
$33.25
A Century of Plenty: A Story of Progress for Generations to Come
Bradley, Chris
Leung, Nick
Canal, Marc
Paperback
$17.99
Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World's Most Powerful Industry
Redwine, Clarissa
Tan, Js
Hardcover
$26.55
The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History
Williamson, Vanessa S.
Hardcover
$30.40
How to Win a Trade War: An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy
Bown, Chad P.
Keynes, Soumaya
Hardcover
$28.50
The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth: How a Nineteenth-Century Novelist Taught the World Economics
Smialek, Jeanna
Hardcover
$28.80
House of Fidelity: The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing
Baer, Justin
Hardcover
$29.25
The Middle-Class New Deal: Restoring Upward Mobility and the American Dream
Dickerson, A. Mechele
Paperback
$29.94
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
Robinson, James A.
Acemoglu, Daron
Paperback
$23.75
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shatteredâ a Nation (Large Print Edition)
Sorkin, Andrew Ross
Paperback
$35.15
Who Gets What -- And Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design
Roth, Alvin E.
Paperback
$17.10
Freakonomics Twentieth Anniversary Edition: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Dubner, Stephen J.
Levitt, Steven D.
Paperback
$18.99
A History of the United States in Five Crashes: Stock Market Meltdowns That Defined a Nation
Nations, Scott
Paperback
$18.04
It's on You: How Corporations and Behavioral Scientists Have Convinced Us That We're to Blame for Society's Deepest Problems
Loewenstein, George
Chater, Nick
Hardcover
$28.80
5 Steps to a 5: AP Microeconomics 2027: Practice AP Tests + AP Content Review + Digital Exams
Dodge, Eric R.
Paperback
$27.85
Broken Money: Why Our Financial System is Failing Us and How We Can Make it Better
Alden, Lyn
Paperback
$22.79
How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World's Last Developmental Frontier
Studwell, Joe
Hardcover
$28.80
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail
Dalio, Ray
Hardcover
From $14.99
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Ariely, Dan
Paperback
From $10.99
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
Banerjee, Abhijit V.
Duflo, Esther
Paperback
$18.99
Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity
Marohn, Charles L., Jr.
Hardcover
$24.70
How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness
Roberts, Russ
Paperback
$16.15
Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed Bin Zayed's Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East
Cole, Matthew
Hardcover
$28.50
Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead
Rogoff, Kenneth
Paperback
$19.00
Baby Steps Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth--And How You Can Too
Ramsey, Dave
Hardcover
$30.39
Abundance / Abundancia (Spanish Edition): Cómo Construimos Un Mundo Mejor
Klein, Ezra
Thompson, Derek
Paperback
$20.89
The Best Decisions You'll Ever Make: An Economist's Guide to Saving Time, Making Money, and Living Well
Altman, Daniel
Hardcover
$29.45
Blood and Treasure: The Economics of Conflict from the Vikings to the Modern Era
Weldon, Duncan
Hardcover
$30.40
Louder Than Words: Take Your Career from Average to Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal Intelligence
Navarro, Joe
Poynter, Toni Sciarra
Paperback
$18.04
Financial Literacy for All: Disrupting Struggle, Advancing Financial Freedom, and Building a New American Middle Class
Bryant, John Hope
Paperback
$17.10
The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism
Mattei, Clara E.
Paperback
$21.38
The Great Global Transformation: The United States, China, and the Remaking of the World Economic Order
Milanovic, Branko
Hardcover
$28.50
The Winner's Curse: Behavioral Economics Anomalies, Then and Now
Imas, Alex
Thaler, Richard H.
Hardcover
$28.50
Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain
Dubner, Stephen J.
Levitt, Steven D.
Paperback
$18.04
Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom /]Cby Grace Blakeley
Blakeley, Grace
Paperback
$18.99
The Banker Who Made America: Thomas Willing and the Rise of the American Financial Aristocracy, 1731-1821
Vague, Richard
Hardcover
$33.25
Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy
Slobodian, Quinn
Paperback
$18.99
Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
Hazlitt, Henry
Paperback
$19.00
Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity
Johnson, Simon
Acemoglu, Daron
Paperback
$21.84
Talking to My Daughter about the Economy: Or, How Capitalism Works--And How It Fails
Varoufakis, Yanis
Paperback
$14.00
A Capitalist Manifesto: Understanding The Market Economy And Defending Liberty
Wolfram, Gary
Paperback
$18.00
The Age of Confiscation: Making and Taking Property in the Creation of the Modern World
Mulder, Nicholas
Hardcover
$38.00
The Madness of Markets: Why Smart Investors Make Crazy Decisions--And How to Exploit Them
Edmans, Alex
Hardcover
$30.40
The Invention of Infinite Growth: How Economists Came to Believe a Dangerous Delusion
Jones, Christopher F.
Hardcover
$30.88
Credit to the Nation: Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Bankers and the Shaping of American Finance, 1873-1930
Kobrin, Rebecca
Hardcover
$42.00
AP Microeconomics/Macroeconomics Premium, Eighth Edition: Prep Book with 4 Practice Tests + Comprehensive Review + Online Practice (2026)
Kacapyr, Elia, PH. D.
Redelsheimer, James, M. a.
Musgrave, Frank, PH. D.
Paperback
$21.84
The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy
Leonard, Christopher
Paperback
$18.99
Shapers and Founders: The Untold Stories of Asia's Extraordinary Owner-Ceos
Kumra, Gautam
Lim, Cheryl
SenGupta, Joydeep
Hardcover
$33.25
The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism
Boudreaux, Donald J.
Gramm, Phil
Hardcover
$28.50
The World Order - Our Secret Rulers: A Study in the Hegemony of Parasitism
Mullins, Eustace
Paperback
$33.75
Small Startup Cities: How to Build a Thriving Startup Ecosystem in a Small City
Halaby, Dominique
Paperback
$17.99
Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet
Collins, Chuck
Hardcover
$26.59
9 Hábitos Japoneses Que Cambiarán Tu Vida / 9 Japanese Habits That Will Change Your Life
Rodríguez, Andrea
Paperback
$18.00
Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead
Rogoff, Kenneth
Hardcover
$42.00
The World's Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (and What Would Make It Right)
Lynch, David J.
Hardcover
$30.40
The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers
Heilbroner, Robert L.
Paperback
$20.90
Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How It Defines Our Lives
Shafir, Eldar
Mullainathan, Sendhil
Paperback
$18.05
Great American Investments: A History of the Bold Initiatives That Shaped a Nation
Ellis, Charles D.
Hardcover
$28.50
Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises
McCauley, Robert N.
Aliber, Robert Z.
Kindleberger, Charles P.
Paperback
$36.09
The Power of Creative Destruction: Economic Upheaval and the Wealth of Nations
Bunel, Simon
Aghion, Philippe
Antonin, Céline
Paperback
$18.95