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About this quote

What does it mean?
He identifies the creation of a method to invent as the era's greatest achievement.
In plain terms
Creating systematic ways to innovate was the top invention of the 19th century.
What can you take from it?
Systematize your innovation process.

Where it applies

  • business strategy
  • R&D
  • innovation management

Putting it to work

  • build innovation systems
  • teach invention
  • improve methods

Questions to consider

  • What makes an invention great?
  • Do we need a method to invent?

Another view

It undervalues specific inventions of the era.

More from Alfred North Whitehead

  1. The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.

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  2. Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science. Its principles may be eternal, but the expression of those …

    Permalink to quote #13
  3. All the world over and at all times there have been practical men, absorbed in 'irreducible and stubborn facts': all the world over and at all times there have…

    Permalink to quote #10

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