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Quirky: The Remarkable Story of the Traits, Foibles, and Genius of Breakthrough Innovators Who Changed the World Hardcover – February 13, 2018

by Melissa A Schilling (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 189 ratings
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The science behind the traits and quirks that drive creative geniuses to make spectacular breakthroughs

What really distinguishes the people who literally change the world -- those creative geniuses who give us one breakthrough after another? What differentiates Marie Curie or Elon Musk from the merely creative, the many one-hit wonders among us?

Melissa Schilling, one of the world's leading experts on innovation, invites us into the lives of eight people -- Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Elon Musk, Dean Kamen, Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, and Steve Jobs -- to identify the traits and experiences that drove them to make spectacular breakthroughs, over and over again. While all innovators possess incredible intellect, intellect alone, she shows, does not create a breakthrough innovator. It was their personal, social, and emotional quirkiness that enabled true genius to break through--not just once but again and again.

Nearly all of the innovators, for example, exhibited high levels of social detachment that enabled them to break with norms, an almost maniacal faith in their ability to overcome obstacles, and a passionate idealism that pushed them to work with intensity even in the face of criticism or failure. While these individual traits would be unlikely to work in isolation -- being unconventional without having high levels of confidence, effort, and goal directedness might, for example, result in rebellious behavior that does not lead to meaningful outcomes -- together they can fuel both the ability and drive to pursue what others deem impossible.

Schilling shares the science behind the convergence of traits that increases the likelihood of success. And, as Schilling also reveals, there is much to learn about nurturing breakthrough innovation in our own lives -- in, for example, the way we run organizations, manage people, and even how we raise our children.
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    PublicAffairs
  4. Publication date
    February 13, 2018
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1 x 10 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9781610397926
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1610397926
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A]n entertaining and enlightening romp through the lives of eight 'breakthrough innovators,' exploring their remarkable abilities, personalities and motives."
―Financial Times

"I love this book because it makes me think about thinking. Schilling very strongly makes the point that in a society where broad statistical approaches in education and science seem to point us toward some mediocre median, that the big innovations-the industry and civilization-changing innovations-still generally come from cranky individuals who are determined that their way is the better way. How do you make another Tesla, Curie, Jobs, or Musk? Schilling tells us how."―Robert Cringely,author of Accidental Empires, Triumph of the Nerds, and Nerds 2.0.1.

"An interesting and well-crafted journey through the lives of those 'quirky' women and men who transformed the world through innovation."―David Brin, NASA advisor, astrophysicist, and award-winning author of ThePostman, The Transparent Society, and Existence

"A real page-turner ... a fascinating mixture of the life stories of radical innovators, such as Elon Musk and Marie Curie, expertly deconstructing them to reveal their underlying commonalities. What transpires is both wonderfully insightful and inspiring."―Freek Vermeulen,London Business School

"A captivating read with inspirational biographies and valuable lessons to help light that innovative flame."―Daniel Levinthal, TheWharton School, University of Pennsylvania

"An inspiring journey of discovery. You'll finish the book understanding something of true genius."―RitaMcGrath, Columbia University

"An exceptionally rewarding marriage of biography and social science that will change the way you think about winners and winning."―Ron Adner, TuckSchool of Business, Dartmouth College, author of The Wide Lens

"The real paradox of Schilling's work is that even though it looks at completely extraordinary people, it may be most valuable for what it tells us about how organizations can harness the innovative power of ordinary people."―Strategy+ Business

"Quirky is both brilliant biography and useful leadership guide. It is an easy to read but deep exploration of the lives of individual innovators and their qualities make for great history that also provides informative instruction for how we can foster these qualities today in ourselves and our organizations."―800 CEO READ

About the Author

Melissa A. Schilling is the John Herzog Family professor of management and organizations at New York University's Stern School of Business, and one of the world's leading experts on innovation. Her textbook, Strategic Management of Technological Innovation (now in its fifth edition), is the number one innovation strategy text in the world, and is available in seven languages. Dr. Schilling is also a coauthor of Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach, now in its 12th edition and one of the world's leading strategic management textbooks in the world.

Professor Schilling's doctorate in strategic management is from the University of Washington where her dissertation research analyzed technology standards battles in high technology industries. She sought answers to questions such as "How and why are dominant technologies chosen in 'winner-take-all' industries?" and "How do managers make the difficult choice between protecting their technologies with patents or copyrights, versus rapidly disseminating them to build support for their technologies?" This work positioned her on the forefront of research on innovation strategy, with expertise on industries such as smartphones, computers, software, and video games.

Dr. Schilling subsequently expanded her research to include other high technology industries such as biotech, renewable energy, and electric vehicles. Her articles on innovation, creativity, alliances, and modularity have appeared in leading journals such Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Research Policy, and Harvard Business Review.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1610397924
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ PublicAffairs (February 13, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781610397926
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1610397926
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.18 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 10 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 189 ratings

About the author

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Melissa A. Schilling

Melissa A. Schilling

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Melissa A. Schilling is the John Herzog Chair Professor of Management at New York University Stern School of Business. She received her Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She received her Doctor of Philosophy in strategic management from the University of Washington.

Professor Schilling is a world-renown expert in innovation strategy. Her research focuses on innovation and strategy in high technology industries such as smartphones, videogames, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, electric vehicles, and renewable energies. She is particularly interested in platform dynamics, networks, creativity, and breakthrough innovation. Her textbook, Strategic Management of Technological Innovation (now in its fifth edition), is the number one innovation strategy text in the world. She is also coauthor of Strategic Management: An integrated approach (now in its twelfth edition), and has a book forthcoming on serial breakthrough innovators called “Quirky: The remarkable story of the traits, foibles, and genius of breakthrough innovators who changed the world.”

Her research in innovation and strategy has earned her awards such as the National Science Foundation's CAREER Award, and the Best Paper in Management Science and Organization Science for 2007 Award. Her research has also appeared in leading academic journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, and Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Research Policy, and Harvard Business Review. She is on the advisory board of the American Antitrust Association, and she sits on the editorial review boards of Organization Science, Strategic Organization, Strategy Science, and Academy of Management Discoveries. Professor Schilling teaches courses in technology and innovation management, strategic management, corporate strategy, and strategy for social-mission-based organizations.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
189 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Henning
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book for managers, inventors, entrepreneurs, researchers… and parents
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2018
Verified Purchase
Quirky is a truly great book. There is surprisingly little research on what makes people like Elon Musk, Marie Curie, Nikolas Tesla, Albert Einstein, or Steve Jobs extraordinarily innovative. Melissa Schilling, a world leading authority on innovation and a chaired professor at New York University, addresses that gap. In this book we learn what makes an Elon Musk an Elon Musk.

The book combines substance with originality. It includes fascinating stories that are supported by the enormous amount of research that clearly went into the writing of this book. At the same time, the book is not just re-telling old tales. I had always been interested in Elon Musk, Nikolas Tesla, Steve Jobs and the like and had read other books and articles on them before. As such, I was truly surprised by how many new and original ideas on these famous personalities the book contains. “Quirky” allows the reader to view these great innovators in a new light.

The one aspect of the book that surprised me most, however, is how helpful I found the book as a parent. “Quirky” really got me to think about how I can nurture my son to be more innovative and more creative. Thus, while I can recommend the book as an appealing read to anyone who is interesting in innovation or entrepreneurship, I believe it should be read by a much broader audience. All people who who educate or coach - be it children, pupils, students, or employees - benefit from a close reading of this book.
24 people found this helpful
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David Gaddis Ross
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring and Thought Provoking
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2018
Verified Purchase
This book is a comparative case study of several of the most famous and impactful innovators in recent human history (e.g., Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs). Synthesizing original source material, academic research on creativity and innovation, and the many in-depth biographies that exist of these famous innovators in science and commerce, Schilling isolates the commonalities in personality and circumstance that lead someone to become a breakthrough innovator. The result is a deeply-engaging and entertaining journey across time and place that will leave you wondering whether Schilling truly has found the secret sauce to making a breakthrough innovator.

Importantly, the author does not oversell her thesis. Although she identifies several common threads in the lives of those she profiles, she also notes exceptions where they arise. The book is written in a style that invites readers to form their own conclusions about how and why some rare people create so much that is new and wonderful for humanity.

On a more personal level, you will likely see much of yourself and, if you are a parent, of your children in the stories of those profiled herein. Thus, reading the book is also a journey of self-discovery.

All told, this is a book for readers who like to think for themselves and discuss what they’ve read with others who share a passion for discovering how the world around us works.
2 people found this helpful
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Bharat Kalakata
4.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing way to learn about the quirks and commonalities among serial breakthrough innovators
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2019
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Quirky: The Remarkable Story of the Traits, Foibles, and Genius of Breakthrough Innovators Who Changed the World. It was a very refreshing way to learn about the quirks and commonalities among serial breakthrough innovators that can help individuals, families, and organizations to bring more value and fresh ideas to the table.

Overview:
In Quirky, Melissa Schilling focuses on eight “Serial Breakthrough Innovators”: Albert Einstein, Elon Musk, Nikola Tesla, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Marie Curie, Steve Jobs, and Dean Kamen. Schilling occasionally includes examples about other innovators (Gavriel Iddan, Grace Hopper and Sergey Brin) to illustrate particular concepts. Schilling also uses the multiple case studies approach by working iteratively through every possible pair of innovators, attempting to recognize commonalities and differences, and capturing the categories and patterns that emerge.

The framework of the discussion is based on 7 quirks that most of these Innovators possess. The quirks are ‘sense of separateness’, self-efficacy, creativity, ‘high idealism’, drive, ‘access to opportunities’, and ‘access to resources.’ It was enlightening to see the ways in which some personality traits that others might see as less desirable, played a dominant role in the breakthrough inventions by these Innovators.

Positives:
Some quotes in the book are really strong such as, “Don’t tell me it’s impossible. Tell me you can’t do it.”

● The stories of the Innovators tell us about the nurturing they had at an early age. The Innovators’ ‘sense of separateness’ enabled them to self-educate, defy the conventional wisdom and come up with their original and successful work.
● The book highlights the connections between intelligence and creativity and also why there is an association between genius and madness.
● ‘Higher purpose’ or ‘Idealism’ was the key for the drive in the Innovators.
● Even though opportunities and challenges were different at different times, the Innovators made use of available resources to bring in the best value out of the opportunities.

In the end, Schilling concludes that by using these qualities (quirkiness) we can tap into mechanisms to unleash the breakthrough potential in our workplace, within our children and ourselves, without sacrificing our personal and social lives to the extent that these breakthrough innovators had to go through. There are ways we can help people challenge assumptions, increase their sense of self-efficacy and nurture their idealism. We can also make sure there are more ‘right times and right place’ moments for everyone.

Negatives:
● Some parts of the book are very repetitive at times.
● This book could have been shortened or could have included cases from the backgrounds other than math and science.
● This book falls short in explaining how to nurture the innovation potential that lies within us all.
● This book is not about business or strategy if you are looking for one.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Izzy
5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and instructive
Reviewed in Canada on August 25, 2019
Verified Purchase
My 15 year old son is very quirky.... a bit of a Sheldon in the BBT. He presents so many of the quirks presented in the book, as parents, reading this book, it is reassuring to know that despite quirkinesses some people were able to make significant contributions to society. Any parent or teacher dealing with a gifted teen would benefit from reading this book as it gives perspective.
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Satish Kumar Singh
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone and everyone who has to do something with Innovation
Reviewed in India on August 7, 2019
Verified Purchase
While Prof. Schilling's book initially appeared to be an academic research into the minds of great Innovators, but it answers many questions on how to achieve success with new innovations! I really enjoyed reading it and hope that she continues to write such great books.
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Federico
2.0 out of 5 stars Sconsigliato
Reviewed in Italy on January 10, 2019
Verified Purchase
Dopo 100 pagine ho letto alcuni concetti ed esempi relativi agli inventori esaminati almeno 10 volte ciascuno.
Le biografie degli inventori sono interessanti ma l'analisi comparata è debolissima e in sostanza i titoli dei capitoli sono il riassunto dei concetti principali.
Troppe ripetizioni.
One person found this helpful
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Johanna
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it! Quick read with great insights on masterminds like Marie Curie or Albert Einstein
Reviewed in Germany on August 21, 2018
Verified Purchase
I like to learn about innovation and what better way to do that than to learn more about serial innovators that changed the world we live in?
The book provides biographical insights into the lives of innovators like Marie Curie or Albert Einstein and I learned a lot just from that. At the same time, it's super interesting to get a sense on what these masterminds had in common, e..g a sense of separateness, extreme confidence or an extreme drive. On top of that, the book is written in an entertaining way and reads really quickly.
I highly recommend it and Thank Mellisa Schilling for her inspirational work!
One person found this helpful
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Paul Bloore
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 13, 2018
Verified Purchase
A very interesting study of some key figures, well written and organised. Very thought proving and deserving of another more dateless read.
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