How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery by Kevin Ashton

Review of How to Fly a Horse By Kevin Ashton

I read How to Fly a Horse several years ago. It’s one of those books I wasn’t quite sure if I liked it or not. However, for me, it’s more important that the books I read are diverse. The book gave me lots to think about.

So, I’m glad that I invested the time to read it. What follows is not a book review or summary, but mainly information that grabbed my attention.

6 Big Ideas from How to Fly a Horse

1. All discoveries are short hops.
2. Observation, evaluation and iteration, not sudden shifts of perceptions, solve problems and lead us to creation.
3. Having an idea is not the same as being creative. Creation is execution, not inspection.
4. Creators redefine failures. They must be willing to fail and repeat until they find the steps that arrive to the solution.
5. Adopt a beginner's mind. The beginner's mind is not the mind of the beginner, but the mind of the master. It's seeing what is there, instead of seeing what we think.
6. Problem Solution Loop: Problems lead to solutions lead to problems.

Common Excuses for Not Creating

• To create is to work.
• Not easy.
• Too much work.
• Have no time.
• Can’t because I am not special.

Thoughts on How to Fly a Horse

It’s a common belief that when you have a major discovery, you think it suddenly happened. But that’s unlikely the case. I think because of the common belief of the Eureka moment. All discoveries are short hops. What the public doesn’t see is all the hard work that went on for years. Innovation is about combining old elements in new ways.

Scientists often build on the work of others. A discovery is moving from the unknown to the known in small steps. Observation, evaluation and iteration, not sudden shifts of perceptions, solve problems and lead us to creation.

Have you read?

7 Lessons from Little Bets by Peter Sims

There are No Shortcuts to Creation

Creators must be willing to fail and repeat until they find the steps that arrive to the solution.  Success is a culmination of many failures. However, creators know how to redefine failure. There are many steps to get to success, and there are times when it seems as if you are in a maze.

Creation is Not Magic

1. Work at becoming an expert through study and proactively finding solutions to problems. Then find problems with those solutions, it’s an iterative process. It’s about trial and error, thinking and perfecting.
2. Creation is attention, seeing new problems, noticing the unnoticed, and seeing the unexpected, expecting nothing.

Steps to Become Creative

1. Become an expert.
2. Adopt a Beginner’s Mind: The beginner’s mind is not the mind of the beginner, but the mind of the master. It’s seeing what is there instead of seeing what we think.
3. Beginner’s mind is connected, not opposite to.
4. The greatest test of expertise is how explicitly you understand your assumptions.
5. First step to beginner’s mind is knowing what you assume, why, and when to suspend your assumptions.

8 Motivations for Creating (Psychologist RA Ochse)

1. Desire for mastery
2. Immortality
3. Money
4. Recognition
5. Self-esteem
6. Desire to create beauty
7. Prove oneself
8. Discover underlying order

Things to Know About Creation

1. Creation is contribution.
2. We build on the work of others.
3. Others build on our work.
4. We do not know the weight of our contributions in advance.
5. Creation is doing not saying.
6. Creation is action, not conversation.
7. Have high expectations about what, but low expectations about how.
8. Knowledge with the right amount of passion leads to creation.
9. The courage of creation is making bad beginnings.
10. You cannot control the future.

Final Thought on How to Fly a Horse

You may have one or even two of the excuses listed above in How to Fly a Horse as a reason why you cannot create. But hopefully, some of my thoughts will convince you to give it a try. Look at systems and procedures that do not work as well as you’d like, then ask the following two questions.

1. Why doesn’t it work?
2. What should I change to make it work?

That’s a simple way to start creating. Are you willing to give it a try?

Next Steps

Wondering what to do next, you can do all of:

1. Buy my new book, Leadership Reading: Spilling the Tea on How Top Leaders Read

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