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Ask Slashdot: What Are Good Books On Inventing, Innovating and Doing R&D?
dryriver writes: I've signed up to a project that involves inventing new ways to do things and also performing the technology R&D required to make these new ways a reality. So, dear Slashdotters, are there any good books on inventing, innovating or doing R&D? Books that describe different ways to approach inventing/R&D? Books on managing a team effort to invent, innovate and research? Or even good books about the history of past inventions -- how they were created, why they were created, how and why they succeeded or failed in the real world? Thanks!
you signed up for an R&D project and have no idea where to start... I am sure this project will be successful
it's means it is.
It's been nice proving you wrong.
creativity fuled by drugs often brings little more than rambling nonsense, that is only praised by shallow people wishing they had a bit more depth to their soul
https://smile.amazon.com/Diffe...
Also, you might want to go get:
https://smile.amazon.com/Young...
https://smile.amazon.com/Ogilv...
I'm sure many graduate students have poured over this book to gain insights about how to make their ideas and experiments come to life. I've seen this book in quite a few labs.
http://store.doverpublications... From the dover-books website :
"This book is intended to assist scientists in planning and carrying out research. However, unlike most books dealing with the scientific method, which stress its philosophical rationale, this book is written from a practical standpoint. It contains a rich legacy of principles, maxims, procedures and general techniques that have been found useful in a wide range of sciences.
While much of the material is accessible to a college senior, the book is more specifically intended for students beginning research and for those more experienced research workers who wish an introduction to various topics not included in their training. Mathematical treatments have been kept as elementary as possible to make the book accessible to a broad range of scientists. Its principles and rules can be absorbed to advantage by workers in such diverse fields as agriculture, industrial and military research, biology and medicine as well as in the physical sciences.
After discussing such basics as the choice and statement of a research problem and elementary scientific method, Professor Wilson offers lucid and helpful discussions of the design of experiments and apparatus, execution of experiments, analysis of experimental data, errors of measurement, numerical computation and other topics. A final chapter treats the publication of research results.
Although no book can substitute for actual scientific work, this highly pragmatic compendium contains much knowledge gained the hard way through years of actual practice. Moreover, the author has illustrated the ideas discussed with as many actual examples as possible. In addition, he has included notes and references at the end of each chapter to enable readers to investigate particular topics more deeply. E. Bright Wilson, Jr. is a distinguished scientist and educator whose previous works include Molecular Vibrations and Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (with Linus Pauling). In the present book, he has distilled years of experiment and experience into an indispensable broad-based guide for any scientific worker tackling a research problem. Reprint of the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, 1952 edition. - See more at: http://store.doverpublications..."
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation. History of Bell Labs from the founding to around the 80s.
hookers and grits.
Michael A. Hiltzik - Big Science Lawrence Goldstone - Drive! Kevin Ashton - How to Fly a Horse
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
If you're going to make something please make it intuitive.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Well Genesis 1 gives basic recommendations of "work your arse off and take a break when it's done" (six days of creation work followed by the day of rest), and also, "first get the basics right, then build on it" (starting with light, culminating in humans). That doesn't seem like bad advice to me.
I've taught a class on essentially this topic in a senior-level class for a couple of years at a top-10 US University, so I've performed this same search that you are (My day job is Research Faculty). I could find very little. This thread has some nice suggestions that I am definitely going to check out, though.
Looking back now, I can see that in my own learning of the art of science and of R&D, it was all bits and pieces learned from people. Whether in undergrad, grad school, or as a post-doc – it was always the same case. I made a habit of listening to those whom I found competent. Most of the real, kernel-level things that I learned were discrete and small lessons. Sometimes a single observation or suggestion.
I wish I could articulate something useful, but really it was the experience of working with others in science or R&D/engineering that I learned the most valuable lessons. Becoming competent in this skill-set is, as far as I can tell, best achieved by being an understudy – an apprentice. That is actually what graduate school is: an apprenticeship.
I am not saying these things cannot be learned in other ways. If grad school is not an option, then read some of the fine-sounding books listed in-thread. Associate yourself, if you can, with anyone who possesses these skills.
Good luck.
I've worked at several startups, and in R&D groups in larger companies. I've worked at all levels, most often directly with the research scientists. I've been at the elbows of amazing inventors, researchers and innovators. None of them followed any common models, or had many shared processes, but they did share several characteristics that helped me in my own efforts.
When I got out of the US Navy I became a technician, initially performing production calibration of scientific instruments. Soon I was helping on new products and beta instruments. Then one of our scientists lost his lab technician and I was asked to fill-in. It was like drinking from a firehose while juggling grenades. But I immediately knew what I wanted to do, and that was a career in R&D.
1. Know the theory.
It is difficult to create anything truly new unless you have a deep and broad understanding of the relevant theory. This can be done while getting a BS (which I did, but it was a 5-year BS), but most often it requires an MS. Or equivalent! You certainly can get the classes in the evenings. Technologies and their applications come and go at a furious rate: Theory never becomes obsolete, and it only grows with time.
2. Know the the field.
It is important to know what's already been done in the field, and what's happening now. Sometimes, our new great idea has actually been done before, and likely failed. Knowing the history, the main companies, the main researchers, and the applicable technology in a field is vital to know even what or where to innovate. This typically means joining professional societies (SPIE, IEEE, ACM, etc.), subscribing to journals, going to conferences, trade fairs, and vendor/distributor seminars.
4. Know all the buzzwords.
It is important to know the full vocabulary within a field, within its adjacent fields, and within all fields it relies upon. It's all the "meta-data", knowing what things exist and how they are related. You do NOT need to know much of anything about the underlying theory or tech. This is where Google makes a difference. Become expert at "surfing buzzword chains". If you know just the conceptual connections, you know a huge amount about the field.
One critical area for such buzzword/meta-data knowledge is math, particularly applied math. For example, I have never used, implemented or even seen an "Extended Kalman Filter", but I know where and when they are used, and if I'm ever in a related area, I'll know it's time to study EKFs. I've read the abstracts and conclusions in papers about EKFs (that's where the vocabulary is), but I have yet to read any of the pages in-between.
5. Learn from others.
I was extraordinarily lucky to have a terrific scientist mentor so early. Don't wait for luck! Learn who the innovators are in your field, find out the events they attend, make sure you go to them, and offer to buy lunch, beers, or whatever else is needed to get time with them. Join the email groups and forums they participate in. Follow them on social media. Read every article or paper they ever wrote.
Then ask them for a job. It rarely works, but it's worked for me twice! (I just got really used to "No", and kept trying.)
6. Read biographies of great innovators and companies.
Start close to your field, the go wider as needed. Be sure to focus on ones that emphasize the technical aspects. I generally avoid autobiographies unless they have a great ghost-writer and/or have great reviews from technical folks.
7. Think outside the box. Literally.
Don't get trapped within US culture. Do some of all the above outside of English-speaking countries. Particularly focus on Asia. Learn bits of other languages, such as Mandarin and Russian, enough to be polite at conferences (Duolingo rocks). Use Google Translate to read papers lacking English versions.
8. NEVER be afraid to ask a "stupid" question!
I can't emphasize this enough. Most scientists are eager to discuss their work, but t
Put interesting people in close quarters with minimal oversight and throw money at them. I can't say it works every time, but I'd like to see anyone come up with any example of consistently highly performing R&D that followed another model. If you have a particular problem you want solved, do the above, then figure out how to make the given problem as interesting as possible.
I would give Tracey Kidder's Soul of a New Machine a heavy recommendation. Released in 1981, it recounts events at Data General in 1979-1980, where a small team of engineers rapidly developed a 32-bit minicomputer. The team was up against nearly impossible deadlines and breaking new ground to create a machine that paved new ground while maintaining backwards compatibility with 16-bit predecessors. Some of it is just narrative, but mostly it is a study of the players: their motivations, their backgrounds, and how they all operated as a team. If you enjoy the TV show Halt and Catch Fire, this book will be right up your alley.