Innovators

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Walter Isaacson, a biography writer, reveals the story of the people who created the computer and internet. It is a standard history of digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation was birthed. He describes the talents that allowed confident entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into a disruptive leap, why some succeeded and why some fail.

The book started with a genius named Ada Bryon, the daughter of Lord Bryon. She was tutored in math which she further nurtured herself in adulthood and also studied art. She had a burning passion for one and felt the other helped discipline herself. She soon met Charles Babbage, a science and math whiz who invented the difference engine, the giant calculating machine. Soon, Ada started using her sense of art and mathematical ability to expand upon an improved version of the difference engine, the analytical engine. This machine would be able to process different problems and even switch between what to solve on its own. When translating a transcript of Babbage’s description, Ada added her own notes which envisioned the modern computer. Mostly, she described computer as we know them, Versatile general-purpose machine. Sadly, Babbage’s machine was never invented, and he died in poverty. Ada got married to William King who later became the Earl of Lovelace which led to her being known as Ada Lovelace.

Another group of genius’ was Eckert and Mauchly who served as counterbalances for each other making them typical of many digital-arts leadership duos. Eckert drove people with a passion for precision while Mauchly tended to calm them and make them feel loved. Eckert conceded that neither could have done it alone. In 1946, they both formed their commercial business that created the next big computer maned UNIVAC, which became a celebrity on election night in 1952 by predicting the winner early. With Grace Hopper, the first workable compiler came into existence. She allowed ordinary folks to write programs in something that looks like English. She started the open-source approach by sending her workout for others to improve and lead the creation of COBOL, the first cross-platform language for computers.

The next prominent actor on our stage wasn’t a single player but a team assembled at AT&T Bell Labs. By bringing theorists and engineers who had vision and passion, they set the stage for the development of the solid state device known as the transistor. The three players who earned the Nobel prize for this discovery were William Shockley, Walter Brattain and John Bardeen Brattain. Bardeen produced the first crude transistor in 1947 and Shockley produced an improvised version soon after. It wasn’t long before transistors were replacing the vacuum tubes in radios and finding their way into computers.

Other recognized players in this book include John Von Neumann, a Hungarian-born mathematician. He contributed expressly to figuring out how to store a program in computer memory. He also figured out how to make a computer modify its program based on the results it was getting. Robert Noyce led a team that made a better and more efficient microchip. The idea of a microchip was to place multiple devices like transistors on the same piece of silicon and was brought into existence by two major companies. Jack Kilby led the first team. Kilby’s product featured gold wires connecting the device while Noyce’s chip laid down a grid of copper on the chip to connect the chips. The race was to make microchips smaller, faster, cheaper and more powerful. Ultimately, both companies worked it out so they could benefit. Kilby finally received the Nobel prize in 2000 while Noyce died in 1990. Tim Berners Lee created the necessary tools needed to bring his vision to life. His vision was to create a single global web of information which led him to use hypertext to connect one document on one computer to another elsewhere on the internet.

The final story in this book involves two graduate students from Stanford who were both rejected by MIT. While Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s Google search engine wasn’t the first of its kind, it did become most famous.

This book is full of people who stood at the time of intersection of the arts and science and made their contributions.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

Key point #1: Innovation is rarely one single individual’s effort as it’s based on collaboration integration and incremental improvement

Key point #2:  These innovators were willing to share their ideas, thoughts and work with people that make them significant

Key point #3: Progress doesn’t happen overnight or behind closed doors. It’s only when people come together to share, collaborate, create and negate that ideas will amount to something that can change the world.

The Power of Habit. Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

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Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter, takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discovery that opens up our minds to how habits come to be, why habits exist, how patterns are formed and how we can change and rebuild them. With his ability to distill the vast amount of information and penetrate intelligence, Duhigg shares his perception about one of the most challenging human natures and how it can be transformed. In this book, he divides the science of habit into three levels: individuals, business, and society. This book is based on interviews, organizational research and a load of studies.

 

HOW HABITS WORK

In the first chapter, the author tells a story of Eugene Pauly, whose brain was damaged by a virus. After the damage, he finds it difficult to remember the slightest event for more than a minute. Despite that, he was able to navigate his way around his house and even the outside world to some extent, which was only possible because the part of the brain responsible for habit was intact. What supports this theory is that whenever something changes, his behavior falls apart; he would get lost and unable to complete the simplest of activities.

Even though habits are automatic and sometimes are an unconscious series of actions, they can be changed. The author gave his insight base on a further experiment with Eugene Pauly, “Habits are powerful but delicate. They can emerge outside our consciousness or can be deliberately designed.”

The habit loop starts with a cue which is like a trigger followed by an automatic response which can be mental, physical or emotional and then reinforced by a reward and then the cycle of a new habit begins. What keeps the habit loop rolling is the craving and anticipation of reward which locks in the routine and habit. Once a habit is formed, it runs automatically even without conscious thought and continues that way even when reward changes.

THE GOLDEN RULE OF HABIT CHANGE

Chapter three of this book describes how transformation occurs. Once you are aware of how your habit works, once you recognize the cues and reward, you are halfway to changing such habit. This was supported by a story of a girl who has the habit of nail-biting. The cure involved was to make her aware of the cues, making her note when the cues emerge. Eventually, she was able to replace the habit with rubbing her hands together. The signals stayed, the behavior changed.

At the end of the chapter, the author makes two essential remarks which are: it is difficult to draw the line between habit and addiction and the second is the process of habit change is easily described, it does not necessarily follow that it is easily accomplished.”

Other chapters of the book explore why some habits are stonger than others, willpower and dow it can be turned into a habit, organizational habits or routines. The final chapter discusses moral questions related to habits and to what extent we are responsible for them.

 

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

 

Key point #1: Habits can be changed by removing cues that trigger the routine or by replacing a bad habit with good one.

Key point #2:  It is difficult to draw a line between habit and addiction.

Key point #3: Once you’re aware of how your habits work, once you recognize the cues and rewards, you’re halfway to changing them.

 

One Last Thing

“The Golden Rule of Habit Change: You can’t extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it.” ― Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

DEVELOPING THE LEADERS AROUND YOU

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Developing the leaders around you is about creating other leaders while leading. It boils down to having a growth environment that encourages others to emerge from their closed selves and become leaders.

The first chapter of this book capitalizes on a leader’s success. A leader’s success is determined by maximizing utilization of the abilities and resources/talents under him/her. The author draws our attention to a biblical story of Moses as an example of the importance of developing leaders who you can trust and delegated duties to. When Moses failed to delegate work, he began to burn out. Jethro advised him to seek for other people’s assistance which he yielded to. He was glad he did. A leader who carries others along tends to be more efficient and successful.

The second chapter further encourages the development of potential leaders. We must create a space around us where leaders can rise and feel safe. In the next chapter, John Maxwell unveils how to identify potential leaders. He made the process easy by giving some interesting principles that help to determine a potential leader. I will talk expressly on one of these principles.

John Maxwell says the next thing to look out for in any leader, after strength of character, is ability to influence. A leader must be heading somewhere and have the ability to persuade others to follow him. There is more needed to be a person of influence. Some potential leaders are like a rough diamond. Some may carry the ability to influence but not yet possess other needed attributes. They should not be discarded, instead, consult the Holy Spirit. He alone can rightly judge a man. When you influence the right set of people, you will not be left with regret when raising up the future leaders.

The fourth chapter discusses the nurturing of the identified leaders. Once potential leaders have been recognized, you must start building them into the leader they can become. To achieve this, John Maxwell describes a strategy using an acronym, BEST, which means; Believe in them, Encourage them, Share with them and Trust them. Those closest to a leader will determine the success of that leader. Energy, drive and vision is not enough to be a leader. A leader must possess the ability to develop the leaders around him. You can only estimate the strength of a leader by looking at the those around him. You attract who you are. In developing a leader, there is a need to work on yourself and be personally secure. According to John, organizations either rise or fall depending on the trend of the leaders. A team must develop the habit of building a generation of new leaders, a strategy that requires a great deal of careful selection, planning, preparing, nurturing and follow through.

THE BIG THREE: KEY POINTS

Keypoint #1: Leaders must build an environment that encourages growth.

Keypoint #2: Leaders should not just lead but invest in others by seeing the possibilities in them and developing their potential.

Keypoint #3: The success of a leader is not only measured by the number of followers but the number of potential leaders he has been able to build.