“There’s nothing wrong in always being dissatisfied. Always look for improvement.”
— Sir James Dyson
Sir James Dyson is the founder and chairman of Dyson. Through investment in science and technology and working alongside Dyson’s 6,000 engineers and scientists, he develops products that solve problems ignored by others. Sir James was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2015 and appointed to the Order of Merit in the 2016 New Year Honours. He was awarded a CBE in 1996 and a Knight Bachelor in 2007.
James is the founder of James Dyson Foundation, inspiring the next generation of engineers through scholarships, engineering workshops, university partnerships, and the annual James Dyson Award, an international student design competition. In 2017 James established The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology, where undergraduate engineers pay zero tuition and earn a full salary while completing their degree studies and working on real-life projects alongside world-experts in Dyson’s global engineering, research, and technology teams.
James is the author of the new book Invention: A Life, the story of how he came to be an inventor himself and built Dyson, leading it to become one of the most inventive technology companies in the world.
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The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.
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What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
Want to hear an episode with another inventive tinkerer? Lend an ear to my conversation with chef Chris Young, in which we discuss the symptoms of maxing out the learning curve, reverse engineering, OCD superpowers, getting hired by hard-to-reach people, why the most interesting jobs are the ones you make up, Victorian exercise regimens, killer vegetables, how geniuses show disappointment and prompt correction, apocalyptic-scale BBQs, and much more.
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Invention: A Life by James Dyson | Amazon
- Dyson
- The James Dyson Foundation
- The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology
- Dyson V11 Animal Cordless Vacuum Cleaner | Amazon
- The Fry Family, Chocolate Makers | Quakers in the World
- What Is a Geodesic Dome? | R. Buckminster Fuller Collection
- Royal College of Art
- James Dyson on His Vacuum Failure and Success | New York Magazine
- Ballbarrow | Inside Dyson
- Cyclonic Separation | Wikipedia
- The Past Porton Down Can’t Hide | The Guardian
- Breaking the Pain Barrier | Psychology Today
- Rotork’s Famous Sons | Financial Times
- Sea Truck | Wikipedia
- Razor-Razorblade Model | Investopedia
- The Sunk Cost Fallacy | The Decision Lab
- My Customers Would Have Asked For a Faster Horse | Quote Investigator
- From Walkman to iPod: What Music Tech Teaches Us About Innovation | The Atlantic
- Citroën Hydropneumatic Suspension Explained | Autoevolution
- The 25th Anniversary of the Lithium-Ion Battery | Kyria
- The Wonder Jet – Story Behind the Whittle Engine | AIRBOYD
- Airblade Hand Dryers | Dyson
- Dyson CR01 Washing Machine TV Ad | 2DrumsAllergy
- Inside Dyson’s $700 Million Quest to Design an Electric Car | Fast Company
- Volkswagen Wraps Multiyear Investigation into Dieselgate | The Verge
- Tesla Made More Money Selling Credits and Bitcoin Than Cars | Autoweek
- Moulton Bicycle Company
- Mini
- Lotus Cars
- Clearing | Investopedia
- Sir James Dyson Opens Invention Powerhouse at the University of Cambridge | University of Cambridge
SHOW NOTES
- Who was Jeremy Fry? [05:39]
- What did James study at university? [08:15]
- What does it mean to think like an engineer? [09:43]
- Were enthusiasm, fascination, and curiosity qualities that were fostered by anyone in James’ orbit as a youth, or did they come gradually through experiences along the way? [10:52]
- How might James suggest parents encourage these qualities in their children? [12:06]
- What’s the origin story of the original Dyson vacuum? [14:05]
- How many tries did it take to get a prototype that worked as intended, and what did the process of financing and development look like? [19:26]
- Why invention is not about being brilliant — it’s about being logical and persistent. [23:07]
- What compelled James to persist for as long as it took to create the first ideal prototype? How long would it have taken for him to throw his hands up and admit defeat if that prototype had never materialized? [25:53]
- Was developing the first prototype James’ full-time occupation at the time? Did he have a plan B if things didn’t work out? [29:29]
- Once the desired prototype appeared, why was the vacuum industry initially resistant to its innovations? [30:17]
- When did James finally get a foothold on the commercialization of his now-famous vacuum? [34:41]
- Encouraging feedback reinforcing James’ belief in this new product must have been overwhelming by this point, right? [36:46]
- How did James’ wife handle the uncertainty of prototype development and commercialization? [39:17]
- Even though surveys suggested that customers wouldn’t want to see the dirt and dust sucked up by the Dyson vacuum, James decided to make the cleaner’s bins see-through anyway. Why? [40:15]
- How expensive were the first Dyson vacuums compared to their contemporary competition? How hard was it to get retailers to carry them, and why did the customer demographic run counter to expectations for a “premium” brand? [42:16]
- Rather than designing to a price, what does James aim to achieve with his inventions? [44:42]
- Who is Akio Morita, and what does James appreciate about him? [46:35]
- Other inventors, designers, or engineers who stood out for James when he was developing his chops. [47:56]
- What led to the development of the Dyson Airblade? [51:38]
- On the Airblade being the first product Dyson targeted for an industrial rather than consumer audience, why this made James uncomfortable, and what its major selling points were. [54:39]
- Why, in spite of being fantastically efficient, James has to consider the Dyson washing machine a favorite failure. [57:36]
- Why the Dyson N526 electric car was canceled, and features James hopes to see carried over into future projects. [1:00:36]
- Dyson is a privately held company. What makes James uncomfortable about going public or accepting investment funding? [1:09:00]
- What prompted James to write Invention: A Life and start the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology? [1:16:46]
- On experience as baggage that can get in the way, applying cross-disciplinary curiosity to solve problems in unique ways, and the power of asking naive questions. [1:24:27]
- What would James’ billboard say? [1:28:44]
- Parting thoughts. [1:29:46]
MORE GUEST QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW
“Experience is a baggage that can get in the way.”
— James Dyson
“Drop your fear of failure; don’t be afraid of failure.”
— James Dyson
“Invention is not about being brilliant; it’s about being logical and persistent.”
— James Dyson
“I did want to call my book A Life of Failure because failure’s exciting and you learn from failure. If you’re taught something and then what you do works, you haven’t really learned anything. You haven’t learned what doesn’t work, which is usually more interesting.”
— James Dyson
“The best questions are naive questions.”
— James Dyson
“Whenever I look at anything, I wonder how it works, and then I wonder how it could work better. Could I make it work better? Is there a technology I could use? Is there a way I can reconfigure it? Is there a radical breakthrough I could do for lateral thinking that would make a huge difference?”
— James Dyson
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform.
PEOPLE MENTIONED
- Jeremy Fry
- R. Buckminster Fuller
- Joan Littlewood
- Alec Dyson
- Deirdre Dyson
- Henry Ford
- Akio Morita
- Soichiro Honda
- Frank Whittle
- Alex Moulton
- Alec Issigonis
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
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cool article and also learned some good stuff here keep it up mate
Hi Tim,
It would be interesting to have Adriene Mishler on your show. Adriene has close to 1 billion views on YouTube with her Yoga with Adriene videos and is located in Austin, TX. Like always, thank you for your awesome podcast and everything that you do.
Paskal
What an amazing human being and an amazing story. Thank you Sir Dyson for your guidance and your humility…and your awesome products!
“It’s a very simple thing that we do, and that’s the product that’s important, it’s not who I am or what the company is or what it looks like that’s important, it’s the product. Is the product going to excite people and do the job properly and last a long time? … That’s all that matters actually.”
“You go through that process with every invention, with every technology breakthrough… it looks like an act of brilliance. But it wasn’t. It was just hard work.”
I took a closer… look at your book the 4 hour work week.
Quite interesting. Imagine if the 1960s happened properly? It was the WHOLE world that had perhaps a 4 hour work week.
I know how you feel Tim…. The rest of them even allowed a second to pass after us telling them such things….. they wouldn’t just immediately stop everything in the whole world for people like you and me and just give up on a LIFETIME of stupidity for the world the way it was supposed to be? Every second that went by…. I couldn’t figure out why every single human being on earth would not get on that sort of a level.
I had a vision about religion once. How Hitler was completely illogical… he represented an opposite of the kind of alternative religious world leader that the world needed. The way Hitler would think of the Jewish is completely wrong when you consider the perception of famous psychics like Dion Fortune, ISRAEL Regardie and Aleister Crowley and their own perception of the Jewish Kabbalah, which they rename the Qabalah.
What you need is a world leader who tells everyone to be the best that they can be as a human. A person who accepts all races, cultures, countries, sexualities, animals and all else with equality. If you had a Hitler that could talk to everyone and show them what is hidden in religion and spirituality. It would be the complete opposite of Hitler..
Dear Tim,
As a recent father to my first child and someone who considers you an intellectual hero, I got super excited to hear you mention your plans to start a family in this week’s The Tim Ferris Show. Although I’ve got a head start on you, I look forward to reading the Four Hour Parent when the time comes!
The truth is I did want to ask a question about the Four Hour Body as I believe it’s been key to staying fit/energized as a new parent; however, I’d like to extend its application even further to my training as a professional boxer.
Would the 4HB blog still be the best forum to ask you a question?
Thanks!
Miles
Amazing story!
I’ve been a fan of Dyson products for years. Their technology is extraordinary and so innovative. It’s good to see how he’s also giving back to the community by supporting up- and coming engineers. Keep up the great work!
Thank you !!! Don’t take this personal ,but I never hear of you until I stumbled over your Youtube video for Mr. Sir James Dyson today. I have to say this was SO Inspiring!! Thank YOU !!! Your Questions where well thought out and very smart. I was able to hear Mr.Dyson’s Passion in his work with transparency and your Humbleness .
I’m a Inventory myself and it’s so inspiring to hear someone who you admire ,but transparent. Creativity is art.. It’s it own perspective or lease .
It’s like walking in a room full of apples and your an orange, your a fruit ,but have your own taste. I will be replaying this over and over! So many gems….
I look forward to listen to other topics you covered.
Blessing …