ndanger.organism

Not only was I lucky enough to see Scott Berkun on his recent trip to Pittsburgh (easter egg: can you find me in the–blatantly hotlinked–picture?), I got there early enough to get a free copy of his book.

The book is ok.

It’s easy to read, well researched and visually beautiful. Beyond that, I didn’t get that much out of it. Many of the lessons–innovation is the result of hard work, you seldom know what you’ll end up with, bad ideas sometimes win, human skills are important, etc.–are things I’ve already internalized. The description of the steps of brainstorming–facts, ideas, solutions–and the role of soft skills stimulated some ideas on agile development and management, respectively (more on those in another post).

The writing is entertaining enough: Berkun’s style is casual and the stories are well integrated. His sense of humor runs a little more Dave Barry–aka non sequitur–than I prefer. YMMV.

According to the dust jacket and amazon my views are in the minority. I suspect this is due to 1) the audience and 2) Juno scoring.

As a 101, the book works well. It might also be useful for those from the “traditional management” or “wait for a lightning strike” school of innovation. I’m neither of these, though I can think of a few people who would benefit from a copy.

I suspect some people review the book like Juno: it’s not deep, but who cares? It’s entertaining. It’s far from onerous: at 150 pages and with a tone like listening to your well-read friend chat, the book is easily read in a day. And the “anyone can innovate, you just have to go out there and try!” message doesn’t hurt either.

This isn’t to discount these reviews or people who liked the book. As with the humor, YMMV.

Anyway, I’m glad I read the book, but it’s probably not one that will live on my bookshelf. That’s strictly reserved for books that make me look real smart.

But as a speaker…

…Berkun is very good. He is energetic and entertaining. He interacts with the audience. He knows what the hell he’s talking about. The ideas–as in the book–aren’t terribly deep, but hey, it’s an hour long talks. If you want entertaining and deep you’re basically limited to Simon Peyton Jones. He also had about 40 minutes of Q&A which provided some of the best take-aways.

Recommended.