Review by Booklist Review
In a time when our society's "maintainers," such as health-care workers, custodians, and grocery clerks, have received unaccustomed attention, this book by two professors at institutes of technology is strangely prophetic. Vinsel and Russell note that we, as a culture, have extolled innovation and the "next big thing," while neglecting to maintain what we have. By maintenance, they do not mean just the upkeep of infrastructure, but also the care work humans require and the humble labor of our homes, including bathing children, doing laundry, and cooking healthful foods. Very often, the focus on the rush toward the shiny new thing neglects the fact that the thing will later need to be maintained. They note that communities often do not budget long-term for such necessary expenses, and families often purchase bigger homes than they need and then struggle with the associated costs. This book's advice to focus first on maintenance in so many areas is eminently sensible. The authors have formed an organization, themaintainers.org, to encourage care in all walks of life. The Innovation Delusion will get readers started in that direction.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The business world's obsession with disruption has been applied far too liberally and broadly, argues Vinsel, a Virginia Tech assistant professor of science, technology, and society, and Russell, dean of arts and science at SUNY Polytechnic, in this resounding call for sane business growth. The Silicon Valley ethos of "failing faster" can work for website and app developers, for whom profit margins are high and the costs of failure are low--but it's terrible advice for people building tangible items. Tired of the "move fast and break things" ethos, the authors decry the overselling of "design thinking" as a credo, especially in nonbusiness fields like education. Vinsel and Russell profile businesspeople, including Andrea Goulet, CEO of the "software mending" firm Corgibytes, and Yury Izrailevsky and Ariel Tseitlin, formerly Netflix's directors of, respectively, cloud solutions and systems architecture, whom they celebrate for being concerned with upkeep rather than invention, and visit a maintenance managers' convention to learn about this profession's mindset. Readers will come away from Vinsel and Russell's urgent and illuminating primer with a new perspective on the importance of maintenance as well as innovation in business. (Sept.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
It's not innovation per se that Vinsel (science, technology, and society, Virginia Tech) and Russell (history, State Univ. of New York, Polytechnic Inst.) object to, but rather the pervasiveness of "innovation-speak" (sales pitch-style hype about future impact) and the throwaway economy that have led us to devalue maintenance and infrastructure. The book is divided into three sections: the first focuses on what led us to this innovation obsession; the second lists its negative effects on society, organizations, and individuals; and the third charts an alternate way forward in which we fix instead of throw away and take better care of one another and the world in which live. Though it sounds like a Luddite's ode to the simple life, this book is not that at all. The authors embrace technology's ability to improve our lives, not its value above all else. VERDICT Vinsel and Russell's observations make a compelling counterpoint to the innovation mania that has dominated this decade. Will appeal to innovation skeptics and fans of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow and Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit.--Sara Holder, Univ. of Illinois Libs., Champaign
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A potent challenge to "the superiority of the innovation mindset." As professors Vinsel and Russell write in this vibrant, sure-footed argument, the digital economy rests, in part, on the "demand for rapid growth that disrupts the com-fortable incumbents of the status quo." For many, this attitude, characterized by creative disruption, has spread from the economy to become a way of life. Innovation is important, of course, but the concept of "move fast and break things…can be lousy guidance for anyone who builds or designs actual things." The authors argue that it is time to challenge the unholy marriage between Silicon Valley's ideology of change for change's sake and Wall Street's insatiable appetite for immediate profit; instead, we must attend to the areas of infrastructure and maintenance. Vinsel and Russell point out that innovation--the profitable combination of new and existing knowledge--is not the enemy. The problem is "innovation-speak," a misleading "sales pitch about a future that doesn't yet exist." Innovation-speak flourishes in a society that values the individual accumulation of wealth above the common good. Maintenance, though essential to any functioning society, is often neglected, thus disrupting order in a variety of forms, whether it's the physical infrastructure of roads and bridges or the simple ability to maintain a healthy populace. The authors guide readers with clear and contemporary examples of when deferred maintenance led to either slow or fast disaster, both of which are dangerous. "A slow disaster…is the accretion of harm from incremental neglect," they write. "It happens when children ingest chips from lead paint or when a potholed road becomes unsafe for traffic." The authors also thoroughly expose the unjust hierarchy that leaves maintenance workers at the bottom of the pay scale. We need a systematic approach, they argue, to monitoring and caring for our resources, encouraging sustainability and shared skill sets. Maintenance sustains success, and an ounce of prevention is still worth a pound of cure. A refreshing, cogently argued book that will hopefully make the rounds at Facebook, Google, Apple et al. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
