HOW TO FLY A HORSE

As a writer on technology and coiner of the phrase “the Internet of Things,” Ashton seems to be a particularly creative type. But the “secret” of the subtitle is that there is no secret, no magic and no mystery.

Creation isn’t light-bulb illumination or flashes of insight, writes the author. It is step-by-step, trial-and-error work. “Work is the soul of creation,” he writes, often with different turns of phrase. “Work is getting up early and going home late, turning down dates and giving up weekends, writing and rewriting, reviewing and revising, rote and routine, staring down the doubt of the blank page, beginning when we do not know where to start, and not stopping when we cannot go on.” Ashton shows how work builds on the work of so many others, for generations, thus debunking the very notion of individual genius, or even individual credit. Along the way, he incorporates examples ranging from all sorts of scientific discovery (a process that occasionally involves theft) to Bert and Ernie, Coca-Cola, the films of Woody Allen and the creative dynamic behind South Park. His message is inspirational, that “we all have creative minds. This is one reason the creativity myth is so terribly wrong. Creating is not rare. We are all born to do it.” From such inventions as the airplane and the smartphone, Ashton shows how asking the right questions and providing the right frame for the problem can achieve something extraordinary and how important are qualities such as seeing (clearly) and actually starting. “We are inclined to regard passion as positive and addiction as negative, but they are indistinguishable apart from their outcomes,” he writes in one of many overstated passages. “Addiction destroys, passion creates, and that is the only difference between them.”

Ashton makes compelling arguments about creativity and genius but continues to belabor them long after readers have gotten the point.