Instant: The Story of Polaroid

About the book

The company history follows Polaroid from dazzling instant-camera demonstrations and the SX-70 through Land's departure, corporate decline, and bankruptcy. Bonanos also traces the deep parallels between Land and Steve Jobs, making the book both an innovation story and a warning about what happens when a founder-shaped institution loses its center.

Why read it

Best if you want a fast company history that connects Edwin Land's invention method, Steve Jobs's intellectual lineage, and Polaroid's post-founder decline

Evidence and original sources

David says the book does maybe the best job of any Edwin Land book he's read comparing Land and Jobs.

• Edwin Land (Polaroid and The Man Who Invented It) — David identifies Instant: The Story of Polaroid as one of the Episode 40 source books and encourages listeners to return to that episode for more Edwin Land context.
• The Story of Edwin Land and Polaroid — David says that if Steve Jobs studied Edwin Land, every other founder should as well, and presents this book as perhaps the best of the Land books he had just read.
• Edwin Land (Steve Jobs's Hero) — David mentions he previously covered this Polaroid history on Founders #40.
• Steve Jobs In His Own Words — David points listeners to four prior Founders episodes covering five works about Edwin Land and Polaroid.
• Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It — David says Instant, the Story of Polaroid will be the next podcast episode.
• Bugatti — David says he has covered Instant: The Story of Polaroid multiple times.