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When it comes to innovation and creative thinking, we are still catching up with the ancient Greeks. Between 800 and 300 BCE, they changed the world with astonishing inventions鈥攄emocracy, the alphabet, philosophy, logic, rhetoric, mathematical proof, rational medicine, coins, architectural canons, drama, lifelike sculpture, and competitive athletics. None of this happened by accident. Recognizing the power of the new and trying to understand and promote the conditions that make it possible, the Greeks were the first to write about innovation and even the first to record a word for forging something new. In short, the Greeks 鈥渋nvented鈥� innovation itself鈥攁nd they still have a great deal to teach us about it.

How to Innovate is an engaging and entertaining introduction to key ideas about鈥攁nd examples of鈥攊nnovation and creative thinking from ancient Greece. Armand D鈥橝ngour provides lively new translations of selections from Aristotle, Diodorus, and Athenaeus, with the original Greek text on facing pages. These writings illuminate and illustrate timeless principles of creating something new鈥攂orrowing or adapting existing ideas or things, cross-fertilizing disparate elements, or criticizing and disrupting current conditions.

From the true story of Archimedes鈥檚 famous 鈥淓ureka!鈥� moment, to Aristotle鈥檚 thoughts on physical change and political innovation, to accounts of how disruption and competition drove invention in Greek warfare and the visual arts, How to Innovate is filled with valuable insights about how change happens鈥攁nd how to bring it about.

So what鈥檚 new? Innovation in ancient Greek experience

Ideas Podcast: What do the ancients have to teach us?