Loonshots : how to nurture the crazy ideas that win wars, cure diseases, and transform industries / Safi Bahcall.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : St. Martin's Press, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Edition: First editionDescription: xi, 349 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781250185969
- 1250185963
- 9781250225610
- 1250225612
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 658.4094 B151 | Available | 33111010955363 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
What do James Bond and Lipitor have in common? Why do traffic jams appear out of nowhere on highways? What can we learn about innovation from a glass of water? In Loonshots, physicist and entrepreneur Safi Bahcall reveals a surprising new way of thinking about the mysteries of group behavior and the challenges of nurturing radical breakthroughs.Drawing on the science of phase transitions, Bahcall shows why teams, companies, or any group with a mission will suddenly change from embracing wild new ideas to rigidly rejecting them, just as flowing water will suddenly change into brittle ice. Oceans of print have been written about culture. Loonshots identifies the small shifts in structure that control this transition, the same way that temperature controls the change from water to ice.Using examples that range from the spread of fires in forests to the hunt for terrorists online, and stories of thieves and geniuses and kings, Bahcall shows how this new kind of science helps us understand the fate of companies and empires. Loonshots distills these insights into lessons for creatives, entrepreneurs, and visionaries everywhere.Over the past decade, researchers have been applying the tools and techniques of phase transitions to understand how birds flock, fish swim, brains work, people vote, criminals behave, ideas spread, diseases erupt, and ecosystems collapse. If twentieth-century science was shaped by the search for fundamental laws, like quantum mechanics and gravity, the twenty-first will be shaped by this new kind of science. Loonshots is the first to apply this science to help all of us unlock our potential to create and nurture the crazy ideas that change the world.
"'Loonshots is a brilliant and wonderfully entertaining book, an unstoppable read, full of surprises and rich with insight into how people create and nurture things that change the world. It's also an important book. Bahcall, a physicist and biotech entrepreneur, is unfolding the secrets behind successes everywhere.' --Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone and The Wild Trees What do James Bond and Lipitor have in common? Why do traffic jams appear out of nowhere on highways? How did the Allies win the secret war against the Nazis? Why does the world speak English? What do the answers to these questions tell us about building more innovative teams? Loonshots describes a new way to think about innovation: why a company's structure matters more than its culture. Safi Bahcall, a physicist and entrepreneur, applies the science of phase transitions to the behavior of teams. The Nobel laureate Phil Anderson once captured the essence of phase transitions with the phrase "more is different." The collective behaviors of liquids and solids are more than the sum of their parts. They are something new: phases of matter. The same molecules can behave in very different ways. Bahcall explains why the collective behaviors of people in teams and companies are something new: phases of organization. Small changes in structure can transform teams from nurturing breakthroughs to inhibiting them, just like small changes in temperature can transform flowing water to rigid ice. Understanding those phases can help us design more innovative teams. Loonshots describes the science, draws on examples from Pan Am to Pixar, and offers rules that creatives, entrepreneurs, and managers can use to innovate faster and better"-- Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references (pages [287]-314) and index.
How loonshots won a war -- The surprising fragility of the loonshot -- The two types of loonshots: Trippe vs. Crandall -- Edwin Land and the Moses trap -- Escaping the Moses trap -- Phase transitions, I: marriage, forest fires, and terrorists -- Phase transitions, II: the magic number 150 -- The fourth rule.