The Art of Invention: The Creative Process of Discovery and Design

In this entertaining and insightful exploration of the process of invention, an experienced inventor vividly illustrates how great inventions embody three crucial characteristics--simplicity, elegance, and robustness. Whether you're an aspiring inventor or an experienced designer, the author's expertise, personal examples, and case studies offer detailed guidance on conceptualizing your ideas and turning them into reality. The author shows how ideas can come from a variety of sources such as the natural world, basic physical principles, life experience, or even chance observations. He examines how intuition and the harnessing of subconscious information are key ingredients for the inventive process. He concludes with an in-depth look at the business of invention and the typical inventor's toolkit. He addresses the real-world challenges of turning a good idea into a practical, marketable application, including patents, marketing, and entrepreneurship. He is candid about the realities of hard work and the need to learn from the inevitable mistakes along the way. Full of insights and practical guidance from a successful inventor and entrepreneur, this book will open new avenues of creativity for budding and accomplished inventors alike.

Steven J. Paley (Paramus, NJ) holds nine US patents and numerous international patents. He is the founder of Arise Technologies, Inc., which teaches robotics and engineering to special needs and gifted children. From 1985 to 2001, he was the CEO and Chief Technical Officer of the Texwipe Company, which manufactured and sold specialized consumable products for the control of microcontamination in semiconductor fabrication, disk drive manufacture, biotechnology, and aerospace.