Inventology: How We Dream Up Things That Change The World

The next book in the 2021 alternative reading list is “Inventology:  How We Dream Up Things That Change The World” by Pagan Kennedy.  The book, published by Mariner Books, is in its first edition.

This book questions how we go about inventing things.  The author explores the process of invention, looks at how contemporary technology is changing the way things are invented, and explores creativity and how we can be more creative in our personal and professional lives, even if we’re not inventing the next technological breakthrough.

This book was selected by Professor Shubha Ghosh, the Crandall Melvin Professor of Law at Syracuse University College of Law and the Director of the College’s Intellectual Property Law Institute.  Professor Ghosh has a B.A. from Amherst College,  J.D. from Stanford, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan.  Professor Ghosh’s extensive research focuses on the development and commercialization of intellectual property and technology as a means of promoting economic and social development.  He has published extensively.

A list of focus questions designed to help you get the most out of “Inventology” is available as a separate document.

 

Focus Questions:

These focus questions are intended to aid you in the active reading of Pagan Kennedy’s “Inventology:  How We Dream Up Things That Change The World,” one of the books selected by the faculty of the Syracuse University College of Law  to help prepare you for your time studying law.  This book was chosen by Professor Shubha Ghosh.

The questions are written with the intention of helping you.  You won’t be tested on your answers and you can feel free to read the book without them should you choose.  And there aren’t any correct answers for these questions.  It’s more important to question the text and reflect on what the answers might be than to seek for a definitive “correct” answer.

The questions are designed to model the process of active reading, which is a skill with which you should already be familiar.  Active reading is a crucial skill for doing well in law school, and the more adept you become at it before you come to school, the better you will do during your time here.  If you would like to learn more about active reading, there is content discussing the topic in more depth on the Legal Writer’s Toolkit site.

You shouldn’t assume that these questions indicate a point of view or that they’re trying to steer you to answer them in a particular way.  Rather, they’re intended to provoke you to think critically about what you read and to help you form your own conclusions, based on the information the author gives you about the topics discussed in the book.

We hope you enjoy Inventology, and we look forward to meeting you and working with you over the course of the next few years.