The United States of Innovation: 13 Stories of American Ingenuity

America runs on innovation. (Sorry, Dunkin’.) As Americans celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Fast Company has compiled a compelling collection of stories throughout our history—a mere 31 years—to inspire you and your greatness. Our journey starts on the launchpad of a space flight and the Herculean, mission-critical software that underpins its success. From there, we climb aboard a warship docked in San Diego for a naval commander’s leadership class, listen in on Steve Jobs in his living room, and marvel at how a former manufacturer of wire baskets for bagel shops reinvented itself as a precision manufacturer. Then you’ll be transported to Disney World, where you’ll see the corporate infighting it sometimes takes to make magic. And you’ll visit a $20,000 house that you’ll wish you lived in. Before we’re through, we’ll redesign overlooked objects from the vegetable peeler to the “I Voted” sticker; engineer the feat of YouTube stardom with Mark Rober; visit Google DeepMind leader Demis Hassabis and Reddit in the age of AI Hassabis helped create; rethink capitalism; and return to space to consider how our orbital ambitions impact on our lives on Earth. How’s that for an action-packed holiday weekend filled with adventure . . . that also just happens to make you smarter about how to innovate? Let’s go! Space flight seems like a hardware problem, but it’s really a software challenge. And that software has to be as perfect as any software can be—and it is. “Consider these stats: The last three versions of the program [that powered the Space Shuttle]—each 420,000 lines long—had just one error each.” This quest for perfection has inspired multiple generations of engineers, and it’ll inspire you too. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/fc\/28121-poster-p-1-fast-company-number-6-1996.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/