The Idea Factory

Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation

De: Jon Gertner

Narrado por: 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

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.

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.

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.

Good book, good stories

Where does The Idea Factory rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I think it's among the best autobiography I've ever read.

What other book might you compare The Idea Factory to and why?

May be the Google's story, In the Plex. But it's still different. The Idea Factory focuses mainly on the genius persons in Bell Labs, while In the Plex centers on the innovations that make Google successful.

What does Chris Sorensen bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His sound is quite good, and worth the price.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, it's too long.

Informative

As an engineer, I enjoyed the narrative. A bit dull in places and it jumped around a bit. But I am glad I listened to it and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the innovation process and/or bell labs.

Enjoyable view into how the digital age was born

Loved learning about the history of Bell labs and the origins of so many technologies that impact us today.
Recommend listening at 1.2x

Impeccable narration of interesting facts

This accounting of Bell Lab's geniuses is for those who want to understand grand technology

Good partial story

For the most part, this was a terrific book. Covering what built The Network was wonderful to hear. I can remember going past some of the buildings/campuses in NY/NJ. I wish they had also covered some of the software that lives on in surprising ways and has contributed as much: Unix, C, S...these have changed the world too!