The Idea Factory

Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation

By: Jon Gertner

Narrated by: Chris Sorensen

Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Important insights into U.S. industrial culture.

This book fleshed out legends I heard over 35 years as a broadcast technician. It also implies questions about the character of individuals who will carry the legacy of Yankee engineering into the future.

Oh my (pause) God! Just take a (pause) Hacksaw

and chop my (pause) head off. The ponderous pauses are a painful distraction. The book was well written, but the reader using the same inflection over and over and over made this an emotional struggle to complete.

epic technological account

Very well written. I'm thankful my Audible player allows me to speed up the reading. The narrator is terribly slow. I listened at 2X speed.

Perfect

You cannot pass this book. It is a fantastic read (you have to like history). It is written as if it was a fiction. The author must have spent a lot of time researching this subject and it put this story in such a way that like nobody could. Excellent to listen and in the same time you will learn what made America Grate. Love it.

very interesting stories ...

heard it first from NPR and bought it and ENJOYED this book! Would recommended it to others

Extraordinary innovation by a monopoly!

Bell labs changed the world! Without Bell labs world technology would probably now be back like it was forty or fifty years ago. This book is about an extraordinary bunch of people operating intellectually and doing basic scientific research paid for by a self-righteous monopoly with a goal of destroying all competition.

This book causes cognitive dissonance because of the good and great achievements achieved by an unscrupulous monopoly that even today still has great monopolistic powers often used against society in harmful ways.

Would society have achieved as much if the government had maintained ownership of the infrastructure located on public rights of way and licensed all competing companies to use it, or did the monopoly by Bell accelerate innovation faster than any government owned infrastructure could? Are we all better off now because of the monopoly?

If you believe a monopoly business is always better than government you will like this book and have ammunition to support your view. Once most of the roads in the USA, as well as water systems were owned by private monopolies. This proved unworkable and stifled innovation and quality because the public had no choice. Bell Labs may have made the Bell monopoly the exception -- or did it? Look at the communication infrastructure in the USA today and compare it to the far better systems in Korea, Singapore, and Japan and one would wonder. Similarly, the monopoly status of the railroad in the USA vs the railroads run by western European governments.

All in all, this history of Bell Labs shows how much a lab with unlimited funds can accomplish. Bell Labs clearly changed the world. Who knows where we would be without their inventions such as transistors.

Great insight into forgotten history

I’ll make sure to remind as many people as I can if the accomplishments of the scientists at Bell Labs.

Slow talker

Would you try another book from Jon Gertner and/or Chris Sorensen?

Narrator Chris Sorensen talks so slow I think the recording has stopped or it is a new chapter. Gertner, however, has a great and important story.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Yes.

Good history, but a little slow

I'm an engineer, so reading about Bell Labs and some of the most exciting discoveries and technological breakthroughs of the 20th century is of natural interest to me. This book covers all the great breakthroughs at Bell Labs, through the eyes of the executives of the labs and the Nobel Prize winners who did most of the discovering. Although this is a natural vantage point, I kept feeling like I was missing the basic intensity and passion of the individual inventor and discoverer, which is what most interests me.

I never finished the book, because I'm afraid there are other works I'm more interested in, and are really more interesting to read. I wonder how the author holds other people's attention for the whole book, when an electrical engineer like me can't maintain interest.

The narrator of this book is painfully slow. He reads so deliberately, as if he's recounting some incredibly exciting event like a political assassination, as he recounts the researcher pushing a probe into a device to measure a current. My audible.com software allows me to change the narration speed, and I highly recommend "2x" or 2 times normal speed, so you don't fall asleep, or punch the dashboard in frustration.

Disappointing book

The book is highly focused in name the individuals that worked on Bell Labs. Too many names to distract. I was expecting much more history, innovation and leadership than knowing the favorite shirt colors of some of the company managers. I don't recommend. The small part about the real ideas and innovation is good.