Sleeping Beauties: Why Good Ideas Go Dormant and How They Wake Up

by David Byrne

A ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is a brilliant idea that is ahead of its time.

So many breakthroughs in arts or science were like this, lost on their initial audience and only later revived and acknowledged to be great.

This book asks, why do some ideas fall asleep? And how do they wake up?

We love to believe in a meritocracy of ideas – that greatness is always recognised, innovation always seized upon and rewarded. Yet so many of the people we now recognise as the world's great creators initially got little traction for their work. It was only later, often much later, that their work comes roaring back to life and made a lasting impact.

Discoveries as diverse as dark matter to continental drift, technologies from solar panels to the steam engine, artists from Brueghel to Vermeer to Melville all created 'sleeping beauties'. Ranging across many centuries and the full scope of human endeavour, Byrne explores their stories and gives us a lens for identifying future breakthroughs.

Humbling yet hopeful, these stories celebrate the courage to try new things and the wisdom to embrace them.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, Music, Art, Audiobook

400 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 6, 2026

About the author

A cofounder of the musical group Talking Heads, David Byrne has also released several solo albums in addition to collaborating with such noted artists as Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson, and Brian Eno. His art includes photography and installation works and has been published in five books. He lives in New York and he recently added some new bike racks of his own design around town, thanks to the Department of Transportation.

Photo © Catalina Kulczar-Marin

Reviews

[Kerry · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

Kind of disappointing given that the title implies this book will be about the "why" and "how" good ideas go dormant -- this is more just a cataloguing of anecdotes from history temptingly packaged.

[Carae · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delight! Personally, this is one of those books that I read purely because of who the author is. While it’s not necessarily content I would reach for, or anything I knew much of anything about, I thoroughly enjoyed everything I learned! It probably it helps that I have heard David Byrnes voice enough in my lifetime, that reading it had an internal narration in his voice for me, haha! If you love David Byrne and are curious to learn about something new, this was a great read.

[Jquick99 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can’t believe I’m writing these words… the audiobook is read by the author. He reads monotonously and very slowly. A good listening speed is 25%-30% faster. This faster speed punctuates the author’s speaking style of saying 4-6 words, pause, 4-6 words, pause… Which becomes very distracting.

(I have written the below using the author’s speaking style with lots of pauses, but this site removes 3-4 spaces and just leaves 1 space.)

I am the target audience for trivia, and new information so I like the concept of Sleeping Beauties, which the author over and over explains, but his examples were boring and he takes forever to tell a story. I suspect if he had a better editor and the stories were more succinct, they would be less boring.

Disclosure: huge, huge fan of the Heads in the early 80s. I was living in NYC in 2007 and went to a Lucinda concert, and David came out on stage, unannounced, sang 2 songs and blew the roof off the place. It was fantastic! Then, a few days later, saw Terry Allen @ Joe’s Pub, and again David came out on stage unannounced and sang 2 duets with Terry. But, somehow he didn’t kill it and blow the roof off + he was wearing this stiff beige-ish tan shirt and matchy match shorts, and I was distracted trying to figure out if he looked more like a UPS guy, or a Boy Scout.

[Jerry James · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

A marvelous read giving extremely interesting examples of ideas that played out later rather than at the time of conception, sometimes in and out of vogue until confirmed. Byrne has a wonderful writing style that is able to convey complicated history and concepts with a comfortable ease.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

good book for people who like to read the daily featured article on wikipedia (aka me)

or a book about polymaths for aspiring polymaths by a famous polymath

[Andrew McMillen · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I struggled to finish this. A good effort by the author but not overly engaging for the reader. I’ll reserve making further comments until a later date, once the book has been published.

[Hedi Debbebi · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the idea of the book but I was disappointed after finishing the first part and skimming through the other parts. The book is just a collection of stories about unearthing forgotten achievements of humanity (the author calls them sleeping beauties), catalogued in six different categories. No talk about how to spot a "sleeping beauty" or any practical advice of any kind. The book is as if telling the reader "There are plenty of genius works in all fields of life that rest asleep for a period of time, then someone or some events will push it to the front! Yay! It's amazing!" and that's all of it.

[Ben · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Clever exercise to talk about how ideas, books, and other things can go dormant over time. The ones on technology are probably the most interesting. Roman concrete for example is apparently more environmentally friendly and less prone to cracking than what we do in the modern era (though less strong because they didn’t have steel). The parts on art feel more scattershot. There’s a difference between a Caravaggio that was huge, faded, and came back versus a Great Gatsby that was apparently a failure at first and got big thanks to the production of cheap paperbacks for soldiers.

I was also hoping for a bit more summation before the end of the book.

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw this smart & gifted author revie his book.

I like the quick 'Sleeping Beauty' rebirths about subjects and people famous after their prime. I thought of Oppenheimer loss of fame & trust, which was revived and rehabilitated almost a century later.
I have had many conversations with people about separating the art from the person. Caravaggio & MJ come up often, butchered many others whose behaviors are ignored by loyal followers.
The Bibliography could keep the curious reader in psychological investigations for decades.
Highly recommend to any inquisitive person.

[Michael Golightly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Felt like a series of high school essays without the work to make the stories part of a narrative that brings and connections or relatedness to the independent parts.Is there anything to be learned from story to story of any relationship or reason why these things happen as they do. Are we doomed to forget both important and not important stuff all the time? Who or what would preserve or identify the good or worthwhile. From the rest? And how to decide which is which? (And decided by who?)

[Lezley · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an amazing piece of research! I learned so much and although there were a few areas that were beyond me (black holes and dark matter for example,) overall, I found Byrne's research fascinating. And, as I read I could feel Byrne's comments and lively sense humor which certainly kept my interest.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Proofread large-print edition.

[Irina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this book for free with the purchase of another one. Not sure if its the same
Version thats supposed to come out in Oct, but this one has 16 pages. 2 stars because it left me the same way it found me