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    Invention: A Life
    Invention: A Life
    Invention: A Life
    Audiobook11 hours

    Invention: A Life

    Written by James Dyson

    Narrated by James Dyson

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Dyson has become a byword for great design, brilliant invention and global success. Now, James Dyson, the entrepreneur who made it all happen, tells his remarkable and inspirational story in Invention: A Life of Learning through Failure.

    'By continually challenging ourselves, investing in the future and experimenting, we can continue to make the future. We must never stop. Never, for one second become comfortable.' James Dyson

    In this spirited autobiography, James Dyson interweaves his own life story with a wider exploration of the importance of invention. On the way, the reader encounters challenging and inspirational characters, radical inventions, adventurous engineering, cultural fads, political gamesmanship, legal battles and much else besides.

    Invention: A Life of Learning through Failure is a 21st century call to arms: creative invention through the research, design and manufacture of technologies and products empowers not only employees and employers, but the economy at large, while the very acts of imagining, shaping and making things enriches our lives. James Dyson sees people as producers as well as consumers, the inventing and making of things part of a natural instinct. Invention is a lifelong commitment. It has been James Dyson’s life.

     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio UK
    Release dateSep 2, 2021
    ISBN9781398500617
    Author

    James Dyson

    James Dyson was born in Norfolk in 1947 and studied at the Royal College of Art in London, before joining Rotork to engineer and make the Sea Truck, a high-speed flat-bottomed boat, with Jeremy Fry. Best known for his revolutionary cyclonic vacuum cleaner, his products have been sold around the world, renowned for their innovative technology, design, and efficiency. James believes that engineers can improve the world and he helps them to do so through the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology, The James Dyson Foundation, and the annual James Dyson Award.

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    Reviews for Invention

    4.5/5

    32 ratings3 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a great read, with insightful commentary on technology and business. It offers interesting information about Dyson's products and their engineering challenges. However, some readers feel that the book gets sidetracked with technical and political ramblings. Overall, it provides a unique perspective on the company's journey to success.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      What a ride. A great read/listen from a man on the bleeding edge of technology and business. Sprinkled with well aimed barbs at the white collar and political establishment for their hypocrisy and laziness.

      This should be mandatory reading in schools.
    • 3/5
      Interesting to hear the technological development side, but does turn into a billionaire crying because people hurt his feelings or did something he thought should be done different, but he puts his best karen hat onOK cause he call to complains to the prime minister multiple times. Doesn't like wind turbines or solar.
    • 3/5
      Yes, Dyson is the company led by that guy in the commercials telling us how long it took to create an expensive vacuum that doesn't lose suction. But this book is about more than that: it also features hair dryers and other household appliances!

      If you enjoy rambling forays into the engineering challenges presented by a bagless vacuum cleaner, this book is for you. But it's also for you if you like hearing about a pedantic man's unsuccessful quest for validation in his homeland of the UK, and his rough journey to commercial success overseas.

      There was plenty of interesting info in this book. For example, I had no idea that Dyson once had an electric car in their pipeline, and that they run a successful engineering school that churns out future employees. However, the interesting tidbits were often drowned out by technical and political ramblings.

      This book was at times boring, aggravating, entertaining, and semi-inspirational. As such, I will award it a reasonable 3 stars.