There is a myth about how something new comes to be; that geniuses have dramatic moments of insight where great things and thoughts are born whole. Poems are written in dreams. Symphonies are composed complete. Science is accomplished with eureka shrieks. Businesses are built by magic touch. The myth is wrong. Anyone can create. Necessity is not the mother of invention. We all are. In How to Fly a Horse- The Secret History of Creation, Invention and Discovery, acclaimed technology pioneer Kevin Ashton takes us behind the scenes of creation to reveal the true process of discovery. From Archimedes to Apple, from Kandinsky to the Coke can, from the Wright brothers - who set out to 'fly a horse' - to Woody Allen, he exposes the seemingly unremarkable individuals, gradual steps, multiple failures and countless ordinary and often uncredited acts that led to our most astounding breakthroughs. Along the way he explores why innovators meet resistance and how they overcome it, why most organisations stifle creative people, and how the most creative organisations really work. In a passionate and profound narrative, How to Fly a Horse explodes the myths on how 'new' comes to be.

Author Biography

Kevin Ashton began his career at Procter & Gamble, where he led pioneering work on RFID (radio-frequency identification), for which he coined the term the oInternet of Things.o He went on to cofound the Auto-ID Center at MIT and led three successful start-ups in the field. His writing about innovation and technology has appeared in The New York Times, the Atlantic, Quartz, and Medium.