The Medici Effect

What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation

By: Frans Johansson

Narrated by: Frans Johansson

Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's Summary

Why do so many world-changing insights come from people with little or no related experience? Charles Darwin was a geologist when he proposed the theory of evolution. And it was an astronomer who finally explained what happened to the dinosaurs. Frans Johansson's The Medici Effect shows how breakthrough ideas most often occur when we bring concepts from one field into a new, unfamiliar territory, and offers examples on how we can turn the ideas we discover into path-breaking innovations.

©2006 Frans Johansson (P)2017 Tantor

Please hire a voice talent

I have a difficult time understanding the author. His mispronunciations can be very distracting, such as his frequent mispronunciation of creativity as ‘cretivity.’ Other times I just can’t make out the words at all. I have had similar issues with two other author narrated books.

The beginning could have been truncated; it seemed more self-congratulating than essential material.

It would have been helpful to lay out more of the major finding upfront and used the rest of the book to add details.

I did enjoy much of the content, but I also worry about possible confirmation bias.

Bland at best, irritating in parts

After the first 30-or-so minutes of the author congratulating himself on the success of his book and his self-promotion travels, I almost stopped listening. Then the actual book started. I was excited at first. But that excitement waned with each passing hour of listening. He presented the commonly-understood argument that diversification is beneficial, doing so broadly enough to say something but not specific enough to say something new. His anecdotes--part of me thinks it was just a way for the author to let everyone know he got to talk to cool people--were the only evidence offered. Nothing useful. Moreover, even the term "Medici effect" was wanting more explanation (its out there, if the author just looks).

Perhaps the most irritating part of this audiobook was the narration itself. The author chose to narrate it himself. . .to save money? Part of his ego trip? Either way, it was terrible--words blending together, lack of enunciation, rhythm broken up by periods of slow and fast paces as the narrator/author found comfort in easier-to-say words. Occasionally and sporadically he broke up his monotonous with clearly-forced emotion. If he didn't write the book, I'd question if he knew what he was saying. I'm not surprised Audible didn't have a preview of the book.

Learn Something New - and - Different Every Day..!

I modified my goal of learning something new every day, thanks to this book.
Another modification is surrounding myself with excellent people - from many fields and walks of life. Diversity is Key!
Mr Johansson makes a convincing case that learning everything about my field of expertise may bring me only so far. I need to continue looking left and right forward and backwards, up and down to innovate. The more complex my goal, the more I will need diverse people around me.
I immediately listened twice to the book. This is worth it. Good thing is, that in the modern times of the Internet we can diversify excellent wisdom easily - when we open our minds to different fields and ideas!

This was a tough one.

There were certainly a few valuable nuggets, but those could have been delivered by meme just as effectively. It’s also pretty clear that nothing presented was supported by anything more than mere anecdote that all happened to support the author’s hypothesis of “diversity makes innovation happen because, duh.”
It’s another one of those corporate propaganda books that exists for no reason but to serve as a citation for an agenda.
There’s no critical though here. It’s all just echo chamber fluff.
The writing wasn’t good the narration was worse. But credit to the author for seeing an opportunity and capitalizing, he got a lot of folks money. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A game changer for those looking to innovate

Fantastic- Frans takes you on an incredible journey of innovation at the intersection of ideas. An engaging and we'll balanced combination of inspiring examples and practical application for all who read it

Expect the unexpected

Approach is a game changer. One challenge is applying this approach in federal government with tax payers' dollars.

Inspiring

The Medici Effect will inspire you to think differently and encourage you to chart a course to The Intersection.

What are you waiting for!?

The ideas in this book can change the way you do anything & everything. if possible, have a notebook nearby because The concepts presented & your resulting ideas will not all fit in your head at the same time.

Great work Frans!

Cool idea, poor diction

Thank you for a wonderful book. Unfortunately, it is very hard on the ear, because the author reading his own book might need to practice a bit more in clear diction. Normally I prefer to listen at x1.5-1.75 speed. Such unclear diction makes it impossible for me to accelerate through the book.