Cambridge Business Association
Hacking Innovation
Book

Hacking Innovation

The New Growth Model from the Sinister World of Hackers

Josh Linkner
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Eye Opening
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Josh Linkner describes the twisted mind-set and tactics of criminal hackers. He engagingly persuades you to change your attitude toward hacker techniques like crowdsourcing, rapid experimentation, reverse engineering and mash-ups by showing how executives and entrepreneurs can use them to achieve business and social breakthroughs. Even though some suggestions might seem like familiar creative techniques under another name, his ideas offer fresh insights about turning hackers’ methods to good purpose.   

Summary

Productive Hackers Versus Criminal Crackers

Broadly, all hacking embodies innovation and creativity that challenges orthodox thinking. Hacking almost always results in something new that changes popular thinking. But criminals who break the law by breaking into systems and disrupting them for theft and exploitation are quite different from legitimate hackers who use their skills to innovate, solve problems and succeed in lawful business. Experts call the criminals “crackers” and see those who hack to discover and improve business or society as the real hackers.

Entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerberg, for example, hack their way to success. Facebook owes its social media dominance to a culture of hacking. Zuckerberg even changed the address of Facebook headquarters to 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California.

Hacker Mind-Sets

Hackers share five foundational beliefs:

  1. “Every barrier can be penetrated” – Hackers believe they can crack any problem and solve it if they ask enough questions...

About the Author

Serial entrepreneur Josh Linkner leads the Institute for Applied Creativity and writes magazine and newspaper columns. He also wrote Disciplined Dreaming and The Road to Reinvention.

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