As a technology pioneer at MIT and as the leader of three successful start-ups Kevin Ashton experienced firsthand the all-consuming challenge of creating something new Now in a tour-de-force narrative twenty years in the making Ashton leads us on a journey through humanityrsquos greatest creations to uncover the surprising truth behind who creates and how they do it From the crystallographerrsquos laboratory where the secrets of DNA were first revealed by a long forgotten woman to the electromagnetic chamber where the stealth bomber was born on a twenty-five-cent bet to the Ohio bicycle shop where the Wright brothers set out to ldquofly a horserdquo Ashton showcases the seemingly unremarkable individuals gradual steps multiple failures and countless ordinary and usually uncredited acts that lead to our most astounding breakthroughsCreators he shows apply in particular ways the everyday ordinary thinking of which we are all capable taking thousands of small steps and working in an endless loop of problem and solution He examines why innovators meet resistance and how they overcome it why most organizations stifle creative people and how the most creative organizations work Drawing on examples from art science business and invention from Mozart to the Muppets Archimedes to Apple Kandinsky to a can of Coke How to Fly a Horse is a passionate and immensely rewarding exploration of how ldquonewrdquo comes to be.
