Get the key ideas from
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.
Go Premium and get the best of Blinkist
Upgrade to Premium now and get unlimited access to the Blinkist library. Read or listen to key insights from the world’s best nonfiction.
Upgrade to PremiumWhat is Blinkist?
The Blinkist app gives you the key ideas from a bestselling nonfiction book in just 15 minutes. Available in bitesize text and audio, the app makes it easier than ever to find time to read.
Start free trialDiscover
3,000+ top
nonfiction titles
Get unlimited access to the most important ideas in business, investing, marketing, psychology, politics, and more. Stay ahead of the curve with recommended reading lists curated by experts.
Start free trialJoin Blinkist to get the key ideas from
Get the key ideas from
Get the key ideas from
Where Good Ideas Come From
The Natural History of Innovation
- Read in 15 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 9 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 9
World-changing ideas generally evolve over time as slow hunches rather than as sudden breakthroughs.
Although in retrospect great discoveries may seem like single, definable eureka-moments, in reality they tend to fade into view slowly. They are like gradually maturing slow hunches, which demand time and cultivation to bloom.
According to Darwin, the theory of natural selection simply popped into his head when he was contemplating Malthus’ writings on population growth. But Darwin’s notebooks reveal that, far before this so-called epiphany, he had already described a very nearly complete theory of natural selection. This slow hunch only matured into a fully-formed theory over time.
Only in retrospect does the idea seem so obvious that it must have come in a flash of insight. Upon hearing of the theory for the first time, a supporter of Darwin exclaimed, “How incredibly stupid not to think of that!”
Another slow hunch led to a revolution in the way we share information today: the World Wide Web.
As a child, Tim Berners-Lee read a Victorian-era how-to book and was fascinated by the “portal of information” he had found. Well over a decade later, working as a consultant at the Swiss CERN laboratory and partially inspired by the book, he tinkered with a side-project that allowed him to store and connect chunks of information, like nodes in a network. Another decade later, CERN officially authorized him to work on the project, which finally matured into a network where documents on different computers could be connected through hypertext links. After decades of Berners-Lee’s slow hunch maturing and developing, the World Wide Web was born.
Key ideas in this title
- 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
