Mini-review: Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century

A curious read this.  It's short - only about 40 pages long, and a good quarter of those are concerned with the elements that make up genius. The author draws on Alfred Barrios' 24 Qualities That Geniuses Have in Common as well as concepts like 10,000 hours of deliberate practice being a prerequisite for mastery.   I admit I nearly bailed. 

Eventually, you arrive at the meat of the book - a very concise biography of  Tesla's achievements and life story.  Sean Patrick's passion for his subject is clear and it does make for a breezy read.   The shortness of it does feel slightly unsatisfying, but you are left in no doubt as of the generous imagination and spirit of Tesla himself - as well as offered a few hints as how such an imagination emerged.  It's very much the same school as Steven Johnson's Where Do Good Ideas Come From (crashing together ones from lots of different places). 

Overall, it felt like a good taster biography on Tesla and the qualities of genius - but it's a starting rather than an end point for both of those topics.