The Idea Factory

By Jon Gertner

Categories: Business & Money

Jon Gertner's 2012 book tells the history of Bell Labs, the research and development wing of AT&T, from its beginnings in the 1920s to its decline in the 1980s. Gertner shows how the lab produced the transistor, the laser, digital communications and cellular telephony, and he profiles the people behind them, including Claude Shannon and William Shockley. He examines how Bell Labs organized talent and money to turn ideas into technology, and what its story suggests about the causes of innovation.

Recommended by 4 people

• Ron Conway
• Mark Zuckerberg
• Patrick Collison: “The Idea Factory. The definitive book about Bell Labs.”
• Shane Parrish: “A friend of ours, at the helm of a leading-edge R&D team within a tech giant, first recommended this book to us. As he prepared for his role, this book provided useful examples of how to do innovation well within a large company.”