Creating Things That Matter: The Art and Science of Innovations That Last

I really wanted to “get” this book…but I didn’t. The text didn’t live up to the title – I came away from it no more prepared to create a “thing that matters.”

The author purports to explain “aesthetic creation,” which sounds great, but it never really got explained. A lot of the book was examples and case studies of “aesthetic creators” – there are a lot of chefs, for example, as the author has some background in food science, I gather – that just seemed to wander around, not really going anywhere.

There wasn’t much in the way of concrete guidance (like the title purports to offer). The author does offer a three-part “system,” but it’s simplistic and not helpful: 1. get an idea, 2. experiment, 3. present it to the world.

I didn’t bail out of the book because it’s short, the writing style is breezy, and some of the examples were interesting. But the book did not live up to its title.

Book Info