24 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
American engineer and writer — who writes on energy systems, industrial technology, and engineering economics with unusual depth — a practicing engineer who produces high-quality technical writing for general audiences.
Tony Fadell's 2022 memoir and management guide — the creator of the iPod and Nest thermostat tells his story and distills lessons about product development, team building, and career growth for anyone building things.
American inventor and head of General Motors Research (1920–1947) who invented the electric car starter (eliminating the hand crank), leaded gasoline, and Freon refrigerant — making him one of the most impactful (and, later, controversial) inventors of the 20th century.
STEM toy subscription company founded by YouTuber Mark Rober — providing monthly engineering kits for children with explanatory video content — applying Rober's educational video expertise to physical product education.
French entrepreneur and engineer who co-founded Michelin with his brother Andre — and whose engineering obsession with the detachable pneumatic tire transformed cycling and later automotive transportation — making Michelin the dominant tire company through technical innovation.
American engineer and entrepreneur who built Teledyne into a major conglomerate through acquisition — and then executed one of the greatest capital allocation programs in history by repurchasing 90% of Teledyne's shares over 8 years, returning enormous value to shareholders.
Adrian Newey's 2017 memoir tracing his career designing Formula 1 cars — from the backrooms of March F1 to designing the most dominant cars in the sport's history at Red Bull — through specific technical and personal accounts of each championship.
American business magnate, aviation pioneer, and film producer who set multiple world air speed records, designed and built revolutionary aircraft, produced Hollywood films, and built TWA into a major airline — before OCD and agoraphobia consumed his final decades in total isolation.
British industrial designer who spent 5 years and built 5,127 prototypes to perfect a bagless vacuum cleaner — then built Dyson into a multi-billion dollar engineering company — whose story is the defining modern narrative of iterative product development.
Florentine Renaissance artist and polymath — painter of the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, botanist — the paradigmatic example of the Renaissance man and perhaps the most curious person in history.
Swedish-Russian industrialist who built the Nobel Brothers Petroleum Company in Baku into the largest oil operation in the world outside the United States — inventing the oil tanker ship, the pipeline, and the rail tank car in the process — and whose business acumen was arguably greater than brother Alfred's scientific fame.
German sports car manufacturer founded by Ferdinand Porsche in 1931 — which produces the 911, Cayenne, and Taycan — and whose 911 model has been continuously produced since 1963, making it the most evolutionarily consistent performance car in history.
Private research university in Palo Alto, California — the academic institution most responsible for producing Silicon Valley technology companies (Google, Yahoo, HP, Sun, Cisco) — home to the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and d.school.
Public research university in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois — one of America's leading engineering and computer science schools — whose alumni include Marc Andreessen (Netscape, a16z), YouTube co-founders, and numerous other technology company founders.
American engineer and science administrator who coordinated US scientific research during World War II and authored the foundational policy document for postwar federal science funding.
Orville and Wilbur Wright — American bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio — who achieved the first successful powered airplane flight at Kitty Hawk (December 17, 1903) — without a university education, government funding, or the resources of their better-funded competitors.
Elon Musk is a key figure in the modern tech industry, embodying the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley and representing the force of innovative disruption in multiple fields.
British engineer and entrepreneur (Rotork, valve actuators) who was James Dyson's first employer and mentor — widely credited as the formative influence on Dyson's approach to engineering-driven entrepreneurship.
British engineer who co-founded Rolls-Royce — whose obsessive perfectionism and engineering philosophy ('whatever is rightly done, however humble the task') defined one of history's greatest luxury engineering brands.
American firearms designer who created more widely used gun designs than any other individual in history — including the M1911 pistol, M2 machine gun, and Browning Automatic Rifle.
Co-founder of Hewlett-Packard — the company that, with David Packard, created the management philosophy of 'The HP Way' and effectively founded Silicon Valley as a technology culture.
Victorian engineer who designed the Great Western Railway, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and the SS Great Britain — voted the second greatest Briton in a 2002 BBC poll.
Japanese inventor who created the automatic power loom and founded Toyoda Loom Works — whose patent sale financed the founding of Toyota Motor Corporation by his son Kiichiro.
Founder of Toyota Motor Corporation — who used the proceeds of his father Sakichi's loom patent to research and eventually produce automobiles, and who developed the just-in-time production concept.