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Where Good Ideas Come From
The Natural History of Innovation
Where Good Ideas Come From (2011) examines the evolution of life on Earth and the history of science. This New York Times bestseller highlights many parallels between the two, ranging from carbon atoms forming the very first building blocks of life to cities and the World Wide Web fostering great innovations and discoveries.
In addition to presenting this extensive analysis, replete with anecdotes and scientific evidence, Johnson also considers how individual and organizational creativity can be cultivated.
This is a Blinkist staff pick
“I love these blinks because they combine so many different layers of abstraction, from carbon atoms combining to form molecules to entire cities buzzing with creative collisions.”
– Ben H, Head of Editorial at Blinkist
- Anyone interested in the history of science and innovation, especially tantalizing anecdotes of great discoveries.
- Anyone who wishes to be more creative and innovative, or hopes to foster such traits on an organizational level.
- Anyone interested in the evolution of life on Earth.
Steven Johnson is an American popular science author. He regularly contributes to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Financial Times, and his previous bestsellers include Everything Bad is Good for You and The Ghost Map.
The idea behind Where Good Ideas Come From was to examine and explain what kinds of environments have historically fostered innovation.
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Where Good Ideas Come From
The Natural History of Innovation
- Read in 15 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 10 key ideas
Synopsis
Where Good Ideas Come From (2011) examines the evolution of life on Earth and the history of science. This New York Times bestseller highlights many parallels between the two, ranging from carbon atoms forming the very first building blocks of life to cities and the World Wide Web fostering great innovations and discoveries.
In addition to presenting this extensive analysis, replete with anecdotes and scientific evidence, Johnson also considers how individual and organizational creativity can be cultivated.
This is a Blinkist staff pick
“I love these blinks because they combine so many different layers of abstraction, from carbon atoms combining to form molecules to entire cities buzzing with creative collisions.”
– Ben H, Head of Editorial at Blinkist
Key idea 1 of 10
Evolution and innovation usually happen in the realm of the adjacent possible.
Four billion years ago, carbon atoms mulled around in the primordial soup. But as life began, those atoms did not spontaneously arrange themselves into complex life forms like sunflowers or squirrels.
First, they had to form simpler structures like molecules, polymers, proteins, cells, primitive organisms and so forth. Each step along the way opened up possibilities for new combinations, expanding the realm of what was possible, until finally a carbon atom could reside in a sunflower.
Similarly, eBay could not be created in the 1950s. First, someone had to invent computers, then a way to connect those computers, then a World Wide Web for people to browse, and then a platform that supported online payments.
Both evolution and innovation tend to happen within the bounds of the adjacent possible; in other words, the realm of possibilities available at any given moment.
Great leaps beyond the adjacent possible are rare, and doomed to be short-term failures if the environment is simply not yet ready for them. Had YouTube been launched in the 1990s, it would have flopped since neither the fast Internet connections nor the software required to view videos was available then.
The predominance of multiples in innovation highlights how the adjacent possible is constrained by existing parts and knowledge. A multiple occurs when several people independently make the same discovery almost simultaneously.
Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Joseph Priestley isolated oxygen in 1772 and 1774 respectively, unaware of the other’s advancement. But they did share the same starting point, because their search for oxygen could not begin until the gaseous nature of air was first understood. Thus it was inevitable that some scientists would reach their discoveries at around the same time.
Key ideas in this title
- Evolution and innovation usually happen in the realm of the adjacent possible.
- World-changing ideas generally evolve over time as slow hunches rather than as sudden breakthroughs.
- Platforms are like springboards for innovations.
- Innovation and evolution thrive in large networks.
- Collaboration is at least as important a driver of innovation as competition.
- Lucky connections between ideas drive innovation.
- Serendipitous discoveries can be facilitated by a shared intellectual or physical space.
- Great innovations emerge from environments that are partly contaminated by error.
- Innovation thrives on reinventing and reusing the old.
- Final summary
