The starting point of this book is simple: the increasing number of devices devoted to innovation in France does not produce the expected effects. How then can we go beyond the injunction to innovate and develop a more effective and dynamic capability to face the major challenges of the modern world?

This book urges us to innovate in our way of thinking about innovation. Adopting an artificialistic perspective, the author emphasizes creative rationality: a form of thought that encourages knowledge crossing and invites an adventurous transgression. The question of how such a form of thought might be developed is addressed through a detailed examination of the educational system.

Along the way, this book emancipates itself from many of the myths that surround innovation, including the predominance of what the author calls the linear and hierarchical model.