Invention - A Life by James Dyson

There is a famous quote by Thomas Edison when he invented the electric bulb that goes something like this - “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” 10000 attempts is surely a big number and it certainly seems like a very rare feat. The first line that you read in ‘Invention: A life’ - an autobiography by Sir James Dyson - proves that the huge number of attempts to invent something is not all that rare. To be precise, Sir Dyson made 5,217 prototypes of vacuum cleaners over a period of 4 years in his equivalent of a ‘garage’ before he could build the final version. Do you really need to build 5,217 prototypes for a vacuum cleaner? May be not, but that’s something you will discover as you read the pages further about his life.

Why pick up a book on James Dyson? Well, I was first introduced to Dyson when I came across their bladeless fans and that kind of overturned my understanding of air flow until then. Later, I used a Dyson hand dryer and was once again surprised at the efficiency of the machine(it dries up the hand completely in 10 seconds without any heat). And then I came across the cordless vacuum cleaner that was the most aesthetically designed vacuum cleaner ever(who thought vacuum cleaners can be sexy!) That’s it! I was hooked on to this company and naturally it’s founder.

Dyson is a British family owned company that has revolutionized certain home appliances such as vacuum cleaners, air purifiers(bladeless, if you remember), hand dryers, hair dryers, hair stylers, and much more. Their most recent innovation is a noise canceling headphones that has built in air-purifier that doubles as a face mask. In many ways, as you will discover, Dyson is very similar to Apple - whether it’s the standards of quality, drive for perfection, beautiful and elegant design, simplicity of use and relentless innovation. In fact, Sir Dyson has an interesting event in life similar to Steve Jobs!

From early on in his life, Sir Dyson realizes the importance of design in the area of manufacturing and how it cannot be seen separately. He stresses the need for engineers to include design thinking in every invention and every product they make. He believes that design is something that cannot be done as a decorative aspect of any product. In fact, he actually like to expose the underlying pieces of his invention boldly(his vacuum cleaners have transparent body). This kind of thinking comes from his experience at Royal College of Art(RCA) and from his mentors Jeremy Fry, Tony, etc. This is an invaluable lesson for any engineer because most of the time we are focused on solving the problem alone rather than design.

Over the course of the book, you will read about his various inventions - starting from re-imagining a wheel barrow to building a cyclone vacuum cleaner, a sea truck, a washing machine, a garden water feature(the water appears to flow in reverse in this structure), a board room table with no legs, a contraption for a fashion show, an early precursor to Google Glass, air multipliers, air purifiers, hair dryers, hair stylers, robotic vacuum cleaners and even an electric car! Not all of these inventions have been commercially successful but they give an insight into the genius he is.

Life, as it should be, was not always pleasant for Sir James Dyson. In fact, he was in debt for most of his adult life - even with a family of 3 small kids. It’s just impossible to imagine the kind of perseverance and grit this man has during the tough times. And it’s not just one time, but multiple times - sometimes it was the politics and government, sometimes it was companies stealing his inventions, other times the patent law. I can’t think of a better example for the quote - “If it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger” and stronger he became through his life.

Apart from his inventions, you will also read about his contributions to the areas of farming, education, philanthropy etc. It is his quest to build better engineering talent in UK and the world that led him to establish his own university and provide grants to multiple universities across the world.

Some quotes from the book:

• Visceral experience is a powerful teacher.
• Experience tells you what you ought to do and what you’d do best to avoid. It tells you how things should be done when we are much more interested in how things should’t be done.
• It is easier and safer to take a big risk with a product if it is one that you would use yourself.
• Follow your own star.
• Permanently dissatisfied is how an engineer should feel.
• Scale comes with both increasing possibilities and responsibilities.
• Education should be about problem solving rather than retaining knowledge simply to pass exams.
• Design is about expressing the engineering or technology inside the product, not styling or about trying to be contemporary for the sake of it.
• There is no greater danger than satisfaction.
• By its very nature, pioneering will not always be successful, otherwise it would be all too easy.

Happy reading!