The Idea Factory

Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation

By: Jon Gertner

Narrated by: Chris Sorensen

In The Idea Factory, New York Times Magazine writer Jon Gertner reveals how Bell Labs served as an incubator for scientific innovation from the 1920s through the 1980s. In its heyday, Bell Labs boasted nearly 15,000 employees, 1200 of whom held PhDs and 13 of whom won Nobel Prizes. Thriving in a work environment that embraced new ideas, Bell Labs scientists introduced concepts that still propel many of today’s most exciting technologies.

©2012 Jon Gertner (P)2012 Recorded Books, LLC

A must listen/read for today's innovators

If you are interested in how to make your own organization more innovative, this book should help you to "innovate" your own ideas on the methods to deploy.

Great reconstruction of Bell Labs rise & fall

This book focuses on the heyday of Bell Labs and does a good job telling the story of some of the key innovations that happened there & the people behind the scenes. The slow narration does detract from the audiobook, but it's not noticeable at 2.5-3x speed.

I learned so much

I'm a creative technologist. I know the basis of technology history. this filled in so many gaps and connected so many dots for me. I definitely recommend it. I think it could be an excellent TV series. it's a very compelling read.

Fascinating look at innovation and history of science

Really cool to hear how bell labs was responsible for so many advances. Good narration. The writer’s style includes really long sentences that sometimes are difficult to parse even when performed by the competent narrator. But the underlying history being told is too fascinating for that to matter.

Inspiring and Informative

I learned so much about the minds which created the ideas which became the modern era.