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Originally Posted by KarenH
I was fascinated by how Kemper, part way through his story, seems to start thinking and acting as if he were a DEKA employee himself. He records conversations in which he makes suggestions to DEKA employees--even to Dean Kamen!
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Dean Kamen does have this very mysterious aura where you want to admire him and follow him around and participate in his adventures and help him change the world. The fact that Dean Kamen has the same magnetism as Steve Jobs or Patton is absolutely stunning, and a little inspiring when you consider that he's soft-spoken, a little awkward and not always right. I remember watching him as he received an honorary degree. He stumbled during the ceremony as the stodgy old deans had to hint at him to stand up at the right times. He gave his speech rolling back and forth across the stage on his segway, half the time not facing the audience. Anybody who thought about it for five minutes could see that the Segway wasn't the right invention to cure problems of pollution caused by traffic congestion in cities in the third world, or to do half the other things Dean thought would happen, but we never thought along those lines, my whole FIRST team came away from the experience re-energized in our faith in Dean to change the world. I haven't read the book yet myself, its been sitting on my Amazon wishlist for a long time, but I want to read it to understand (in addition to the product design stuff which is fascinating) how Dean can have that kind of effect on people.