Schilling does a deep dive into 8 hyper, or prolific or breakthrough innovators: Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Elon Musk, Dean Kamen, Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, and Steve Jobs.
Read in the context of diversity and my psychology background, these are folks that are far out on the tail ends of many different bell curves. It was interesting to see how those different characteristics, such as high intelligence, self confidence, extreme effort, goal directedness, idealism, a willingness to be and think unconventionally, came together for these people, and I appreciated how she also highlighted context- access to or privation from resources, network effects of people around them, and some 'right place, right time' aspects as well. She also points out the trade-offs- while some of these folks had spouses and children, most of them were quite distant and socially isolated. Their work came first and second and third.
Read from the context of the military, folks like this just plainly won't fit in most formations, but the military absolutely would benefit from innovators like this. Does DARPA provide a "safe space" to create the right conditions, or would these super innovators chafe at the environment there? Futures Command? I could see the bureaucracy of our large organization being a real turn-off- moving too slow and not even understanding some of the possibilities offered by such innovations.
From outside the military, I could see some being concerned about what terrible things could come from an uber-innovator supporting an organization who's mission is to fight and win wars.
Interesting to think as well about how to create conditions for innovation at the smaller scale most of us more "normal" types are capable of. How do we nurture and support those who are admittedly different and get that creativity to contribute to success in the workplace, the home and in public life? I'm thinking of Liz Wiseman's "Multipliers", Zenger and Folkman's "Extraordinary Leader" and other thought leaders' input and this text's appreciation for the quirky among us as complementary ways of thinking about how to help bring out the best in all of us.
