The Natural History of Innovation - Where Good Ideas Come From

Both thought provoking and interesting. I think the ideas in this book are very well presented and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It provides perspective to how ideas evolve into things of greatness and how the environments that support these ideas are both a part of nature and also man-made environments. Being able to recognise these aspects of an environment, or lack of is an eye-opener.
I would not hesitate to highly recommend this book. I say, Thank you, to the author for his work in this area.

Started to read this and put the book down because the content in those first chapters is serious rocket fuel for the mind and will keep my company's creativity moving fast forward for awhile. its not often that a single book can be this packed with brilliant info and ideas. Awesome.

The book started off pretty interesting, drawing comparisons to Darwin (in particular when it talked about the evolution of the eye and intelligent design) and also why innovation tends to happen in cities, etc. I would say the first third of the book was interesting. However, after that the book is repetitive, he starts making weird claims and trying to show "proof" which was pretty unconvincing (i.e. why non-market is better than market-driven to spur innovation), and it just rambles and rambles on. Disappointing. The book had potential and at first it was interesting, but overall it turned into wasted time. The actual information he includes in this book could've been surmised in 10-15 pages.

I received the book 3 days after estimated, but i'm in Argentina so that delay is OK.

The book is really interesting. Complex ideas written in a very simple way, let me simplify a lot of thoughts that were sailing in my head.

This was a good introduction to innovation and the mechanisms that enable it. It begins describing the fertile environment of the Earth's primordial soup and moves on to discuss the aspects of social environments and internet tools that encourage the mixing of ideas.
This book pointed out several interesting principles, but it was not really mindblowing.

For those who enjoyed The Ghost Map and The Invention of Air, Johnson's latest book is another amazing treat in which science meets history, sociology and culture.

In Where Good Ideas Come From, Johnson examines the way in which people, environments and ideas meet. With references that range from biology, mathematics, neuroscience, technology, engineering, he argues convincingly that "analyzing innovation on the scale of individuals and organizations --- --- distorts our view" and that looking at patterns of creativity within cross-disciplinary contexts is far more fruitful. And Johnson is truly a polymath.

Great ideas surveyed range from Tarnier's incubator, Babbage's Difference Engine, YouTube, double-entry accounting, the Phoenix memo, the DEVONthink database program, Gutenberg's printing press etc... But this is not about cataloguing ideas, but understanding their genesis and their development, in the context of their respective socio-cultural environment.

The author does live what he preaches. In wonderful Johnson-style prose, he examines the "connective talents" of Carbon and extrapolates on the chaotic nature of innovative system. The books itself is highly original, and, given the complexity of its ideas, extremely accessible. You will not be disappointed.

I was highly disappointed in this book. I saw the four star average rating on the book, a subject that has always fascinated me, and I expected it to be very good. I am not saying that there is nothing of value in the book, but it was tedious to read. It took way too long to get to the point, with way too much data to wade through, and the endless analogies to Darwin's evolution grew old in a hurry.

The printed book would have been 4 stars. The audiobook is 2. The reader is OK until he all to often launches into comically bad bordering on offensive accents to deliver quotes from non-English inventors, scientists, and others. The quotes come too frequently to ignore them and are completely unnecessary, distracting, and sometimes off-putting. Why he wouldn't have just read it in his normal voice is beyond me. But this is one of those books I would HIGHLY recommend getting a printed version of vs. the Audible version.

Other than that, the content is pretty good. A broad range of disciplines are touched on but not too deeply which makes it an entertaining and consumable book. Some fairly basic info for those in anyone of the given disciplines but it seems unlikely many people would find nothing new here given the broad range of topics covered. Hopefully, I will make it to the end but it may end up being in printed form.

I first heard about this book and had it recommended to me through a podcast (I think); and am very thankful for the serendipity in that as I found the book very inspiring and insightful. As I am a fairly prolific reader, and I was not overly familiar with the author, I got/read/borrowed the ebook from the library with the result I will be purchasing a couple of the author's other books (and borrowing a few the library does have in stock).

The book was a little dry in places, but well worth the time/effort to work through those pages to get to the valuable nuggets of information and ideas liberally spread throughout. The author uses many and varied items, products, ideas, and innovations to demonstrate and support his thoughts; and I am very grateful because it helped me contemplate, visualize, and understand on a deeper level than I think I may have initially done (especially for the "drier" portions of the explanations).

I look forward to reading the author's (hopefully) other insightful books and highly recommend this one to anyone that considers themselves to be insightful, intelligent, and having even the slightest bit of innovative or entrepreneurial spirit!.

I carefully read the reviews and watched the video before ordering this book, but I was still disappointed. In arguing that "we're better served connecting ideas than protecting them" the author joins the intellectual dark forces that lend protection to intellectual property theft. I'll bet he would be very upset if his book was copied without permission, but this sort of hypocrisy is very common these days (see Chris Anderson's book "Free".) His majestic view from 40,000 feet would not be appreciated by those of us who are involved with the real world daily grind of creating new products and ideas.

Johnson's summary of where innovations come from is interesting and quite useful. He begins by pointing out that most innovations come from improvements and modifications to what is already possible - one doesn't leap from the steam engine to jet power, but gets there via innumerable improvements in metallurgy, engineering, fuel, etc. This is reflected in the fact that many innovations and discoveries are independently replicated within a close time period. Examples: Four individuals discovered sunspots at about the same point in time, two developed the battery, another two recognized the importance of genetic mutation.

Residents of big cities (eg. population of 5 million) are about 3X as innovative as those in small cities (100,000), thanks to the close availability of more idea sources such as universities and other creative people.

Johnson contends that 'liquid networks' (groups of humans talking shop) are the most productive tool for generating new ideas. An important implication is stuffing people into private offices behind closed doors would impede innovation - instead encourage common spaces. Since workers generally don't like being entirely out in the open, modular low-wall offices have served as a compromise.

Leading thinkers such as Milton, Bacon and Locke believed in the memory-enhancing powers of the 'commonplace' book - transcribed interesting passages and notes from one's reading. Darwin's notebooks served a similar purpose. Such a book combines a desire for order with a desire for facilitating the discovering of new links of association - eg. connecting two thoughts via serendipity.

Going for a walk, Archimedes' bath, etc. helps creativity by removing one's mind from a task focus (paying bills, answering emails, helping children with homework), thus freeing up the mind. Reading is another innovation facilitator, as is the ease of following up thoughts from different angles on the Internet. This also supports the well-known Chinese use of specific centers - eg. R&D, sock manufacturing, etc.

The proximity of a diversity of professions (not race or sexual orientation) leads to about a 3X increase in innovation vs. networks of those in the same field.

Less than 10% of innovation during the Renaissance was networked (several individuals), two centuries later most breakthrough ideas arise from collaboration (probably due to having already identified and developed the more simple innovations).

One of Johnson's best summary concepts is that of plotting relatively recent innovations according to whether the developer was pursuing ideation or monetary benefit, and also differentiating between a single innovator and a group. An example of a market-oriented innovation by an individual was Carrier's development of air-conditioning; this generic source has now become the least frequent origin of new innovations. The greatest source is now from a group/network of individuals pursuing non-market innovation - examples include research universities, the development of radar, penicillin, and the Internet. The second-most product source of innovations now is non-market oriented individuals - origin of the WWW, CT scanner, and of course Einstein's Theory of Relativity and E = MC squared. The third greatest source - market-oriented networked individuals - the locomotive, electric motor, the telegraphy, and the jet engine.

Where Good Ideas Come From claims to be a natural history of ideas. The book is readable and enjoyable. It focuses on the sociology of idea production, rather than the psychology of idea production. So, it is mostly concerned with what social structures promote creativity and invention - rather than how ideas originate inside brains. There's a history of ideas in the end as an appendix. The book has a chapter on "exaptation", but there isn't all that much evolutionary theory in the book. It is more about how ecology and social networks influence ideas. The book meanders around the topic considerably - and has a bit of a quirky set of topics that it addresses.

The book's biggest problem from my perspective was its superficiality. There's more to the natural history of ideas than this. There kin selection, group dynamics, symbiology and hitchhiking. There's parasitism, defense against parasitism, predation, arms races - and so on. The book selects only a handful of topics - which it treats in depth. This approach misses out much too much of the topic it is trying to address.I think that someone needs to revisit the whole topic with a bit of a zoom out - with more topics and less detail about each one. Also, we have a theory of cultural evolution to handle this area these days. The author barely references this material.

Probably the best line in the book is "chance favours the connected mind". That phrase now occurs twenty thousand times on the internet. It's a good one.

I had an expectation that this book might have laid out options for an innovation strategy at the level of a firm or as a society. It didn’t give me that, but it was useful in giving an outline of various methods by which key concepts (e.g. evolution) are recognised and developed. Three key takeways – there really isn’t a ‘light-bulb’ moment, keys ideas bubble around in the mind of the inventor/discover for months/years and only in retrospect does the author seem to recognize an epiphany; new products can only be invented by using the technology of the times, e.g. Babbage’s Analytical engine had to wait for the electronic valve – there’s a great illustration of this from the Apollo 13 hack, the engineers on the ground were put in a room with only stuff that was available in the lunar module and told to devise a filter; the sheer power of trial and error – there’s a lovely story of the inventor of the Triode, the inventor saw the phenomenon, but never understood its cause, but pursued the product nonetheless.
Overall ok.

Creating a theory of innovation is not an exact science as the process is messy, erratic, and often catalogued with a high selective bias towards the final "eureka" moment. In his book, Steven Johnson attempts to unpack some of this process and proposes a framework of seven key themes:

1. Adjacent possible: different innovations vary in their ability to unlock adjacent capabilities. In other words, timing matters.
2. Liquid environments: from a coffee house to your lab, the environments ability to circulate ideas plays an incredibly important role.
3. Serendipity: more often than not, it is a rare connection of two existing ideas that sets off a lightbulb, not discovery of a new one (see 2).
4. Slow hunch: instant flash of insight usually comes from years of exploration, where at some point, those ideas collide (see 3).
5. Error: many discoveries come about as an unrelated, and unexpected consequence (ex: penicillin) - be flexible with your ideas.
6. Exaptation: existing components and discoveries can often be adapted to different use cases (ex: consumer GPS applications.. see 1).
7. Platforms: where possible, build platforms and ecosystems that foster environments where 1-6 can be recombined at will.

While the specific examples chosen by author can be argued with, and an occasional metaphor is stretched too far, the book itself is well written and very engaging! Great read.

WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM Steven Johnson

Johnson looks at seven different areas of approaching innovation.
The adjacent possible can be a carbon atom that billions of years ago had only a few possible molecules to react with. A carbon atom now has millions of different molecules to choose from. Babbage invented a Difference Engine and an Analytical engine, both of which were not built during his lifetime. Part of the reason the ideas incorporated would prove much easier to develop with computer chips. This also includes using available technology in third world countries-using very basic technology so it can be understood and fixed by the people using it. Too big a jump between readily available versus what is used in advanced labs.

Liquid networks can be our brains to the Internet. Kevin Dunbar intimately studied innovation in a research lab and found that most innovative ideas emerged at regular lab meetings, much to the surprise of those of us who have attended these meetings. The group forced deeper and wider thinking about the experiments. Work at Bell labs emphasized even more casual meetings over coffee and meals. It may not be optimistic that Microsoft designed their building 99 to include these and other ideas in 2007.

The slow hunch begins with the tragedy of the FBI handling information before 9/11, and compares it with Google's Time off for Hunches. Not a very apt comparison. Showing the slow development of Darwin's ideas, and Berners-Lee Internet ideas are good examples.

Serendipity, accidently finding something pleasant, may not be an accident. Examples of stories of Newton and a falling apple, Kekule studying benzene, having a glass of wine in front of a fire, dreaming of a fiery snake swallowing its tail and coming up with the hexagon shape. Making these insightful connections takes years of hard study then a relaxed allowing of ideas to mix. Walks, a pleasant shower, a pause to enjoy a beautiful scene, can allow ideas to coalesce and come with breakthrough ways of looking at a problem. Linus Pauling often made his current research problem the last thought before he fell asleep.

Error is an area where anomalies in data, not errors, but unexpected data, and the energy to pursue the discrepancies opens real insights. Since mistakes are inevitable the idea is to fail faster and to learn from mistakes. How to figure when following up on surprises that will be fruitful?

Exaptation is the borrowing of known technology and applying it to a new area. For instance Gutenberg worked in a grape growing region where very efficient wine presses had been developed. Adding his metal skills as a goldsmith to improve movable type to this existing technology resulted in a real breakthrough in printing.
Another example is bird feathers developed for warmth then exapted for flight. The WWW was first a communication channel between scientists and engineers, has been transferred and developed or exapted by Google, the store and the rest of us.

Platforms has Johnson using Darwin, his favorite character, and making guesses as how Darwin with his vast geological and biological knowledge to explain that many atolls were not a geological, but a biological result of coral growing and dying. In our time Brent Constantz connected the growth of coral to the growth of bone and buildings. One of his first companies makes a bone cement that is used worldwide to repair bone fractures. His latest company Calera is taking wasted carbon dioxide and using it to make a new carbonate cement that uses up large amounts of carbon dioxide instead of creating carbon dioxide as the traditional methods of making cement. Making Portland cement involves heating limestone (calcium carbonate) and alumino-silicate (clay) together, then ground with gypsum ( calcium sulfate dehydrate. This process releases large amounts of carbon dioxide that is now considered a potential danger to the climate.
Another platform, the Web, is of course excellent for sharing information. Constant new uses such as Twitter allow very rapid transmission of info rapidly and widely.

The fourth Quadrant shows how a need of a publishing company to control humidity for the printing process resulted in an electrical engineer, Willis Carrier, inventing cooling and humidity control while working for company making commercial heating units. To cut down on corrosion of iron parts he used a fine mist of water to pull out more water controlling the final humidity. This allowed large numbers of people to live in many hot humid climates with some comfort.
The author tries to divide innovation into 4 groups or quadrants. The period from 1600-1800 showed the greatest concentration in non-market individuals- the Renaissance. Communication channels were undeveloped. From 1800- present non-market networks became important. You can argue about his choice of great innovations and how much was individual, networked or commercial, and I would, but it is an interesting way to look at innovation. He compares open source development with for profit. He uses Darwin quite a bit for examples.

The many anecdotes are the most interesting portion of the book. I didn't get much of practical applications from his ideas, but they are thought-provoking. One wonders if all the listening devices we have and the availability to listen to TEDtalks, Charile Rose, Science Friday, etc. may form a development of more innovation. To hear the author express some of these ideas [...]

Where Good Ideas Come FromWhere Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson is a nifty dive into the waters of the history and theory of innovation. That said, it's my favorite kind of history: like James Burke's Connections , it illuminates the way connections of various kinds foster, feed and foment innovation, invention and disruption. He digests several popular tropes regarding the sources of innovation and ends up comparing them all in a rational sort of way, with the idea of truly understanding what circumstances foster the greatest creativity (never mind what the tropes themselves say--what's true and demonstrable? Show me the numbers!).
This task cannot be properly conducted without a fair number of historical anecdotes, which are nearly as diverting as the premise of the book itself. Indeed, this book is nothing if not a delightful history lesson, with dissection of the main influences on Darwin, DeForest, Gutenberg and Berners-Lee. All are very, very relevant, as you will see upon reading this book, I swear. Who would have thought that tracking Sputnik would lead to lunch decisions fifty years later (if that teaser doesn't make you want to read this book, I may stop writing reviews. Oh, who am I kidding. I love the sound of my own voice)?

At the moment, the store shows the Audible version as five cents cheaper than the hardback, a good value by my lights. The reader makes it seem like an actual conversation with someone in the room, which is sort of hard for history books, and worth it as far as I can see.

The author describes the various conditions and environments which are more conducive to good ideas. For example, he writes about the adjacent possible or the fact that certain pre-existing conditions are necessary for innovations to occur. A case in point is the invention of the Analytic Engine, the precursor to the computer. Although the machine was a great leap above the mechanical calculator it was ahead of its time since the technology that could turn it into a viable computer did not yet exist. Another important feature to foster innovation is what the author refers to as liquid networks. In other words, ideas need to be able to move about between minds and environments and collide with each other to create something new. Offices where individuals do not interact in an open environment are less likely to develop great ideas if their ideas are isolated from each other. Error, too, is important. Environments have to encourage risk and error, as past breakthroughs have often been the result of mistakes, such as the discovery of penicillin. Johnson covers other factors like the "slow hunch" and serendipity that are important for the creative endeavor. This is a great book to understand where good ideas come from. The only fault that I find in the book is that it does not mention the fact that creativity techniques like those taught by Edward de Bono can be used to foster creativity in individuals and organizations. Therefore, the teaching from this book that can be used to create the appropriate environment and mindset to promote innovation can be complemented with the creativity techniques of other authors.

Johnson sets out to discover what creative people have in common: how did they generate their groundbreaking ideas, what circumstances fostered them, is there such a thing as solitary genius? He analyzes these questions by examining seven distinct elements that creative processes tap into, devoting a chapter to each: the adjacent possible (how new possibilities are opened by new discoveries), liquid networks (associations between disparate disciplines), slow hunches (ideas that languish for years before jumping to the fore), serendipity (random chance), error (finding the right path through process of elimination), exaptation (adapting technologies for solutions they were never deliberately intended for) and platforms (taking strategic advantage of all of the systems that were invented before you came along). Johnson uses examples of famously creative people to illustrate his points: Darwin, Lee DeForest, Watson and Crick, Johannes Gutenburg, to name a few.

This is a brief and highly entertaining journey through the history of scientific discovery and an exploration of the ephemeral nature of inspiration. On the whole, his theses are well backed-up by historical data and he draws conclusions in the final chapter which seem hard to refute. Those conclusions would be of interest to anyone in charge of a major corporation looking to make a killing with the next gotta-have-it electronic doo-dad. It's not just dumb luck (well, not usually) -- there are proven methods to fostering the type of creativity that leads to dramatic breakthroughs.

I'm running out to see what other books I've missed from Steven Johnson.

All too often, the conventional thinking behind how great ideas emerge is shrouded in a "turning point," rather than evolution. Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point..." sheds light on the incremental process of how trends start from ground zero and gain momentum organically. Steven Johnson's "Where Good Ideas Come From..." takes the science of innovation, fundamentally drawn from Darwin's "The Origin of Species", a step further by turning the idea of "genius" on its ear.

Johnson reveals that the creativity of phenomenal innovation is largely steeped in a preternatural curiosity coupled with converging ideas with like-minded individuals. Johnson outlines a paradigmatic system based on scientific reasoning that becoming a world class performer hinges on one's life style, thinking process and malleability to change and opportunity. Although he does not specifically use these words, the synthesis of Johnson's philosophical constructs builds on the notion that great writers, thinkers, scientists, etc... astound the world with their brilliance by being receptacles for insights as well as conduits.

This is an excellent book for individuals who are interested in the practical aspect of acquired and sustained success. The end result is the difference between Apple's Steve Jobs and the next "Overnight Sensation."

I highly recommend this book to goal oriented readers filled with compelling ambition.

Edward Brown
Core Edge Image & Charisma Institute

This book was incredibly fascinating and mind-churning. I highly appreciated the numerous historical references Johnson made, developing an overarching understanding of creativity in any era, no matter the "advantages" or "disadvantages" that time frame may have had. The only reason that I didn't give this book 5 stars is because I would have liked to have read more action steps on how to incorporate what is shared in each chapter. Johnson does a wonderful job of explaining his points so there is no confusion as to what he's trying to share, but having some additional bullet points on how to take the next step with all this new knowledge would have been appreciated. All in all, I think this is a fantastic book and one that I'm sure I'll be reading many times over.

After watching one of the most impactful TED speeches by Steven Johnson, I went out and bought his book, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. I must admit that my impulsivity overtook my usual anti-consumer inclination as I wasn't convinced this book would matter. There are way too many books and ideas that have been written about innovation - what it is, the most innovative organizations, how you cultivate it. But I must recommend this book to anyone who would ever define their mind to be creative. Think of the many ways someone can be creative - if you seek a new route to work, a faster way to load your dishwasher, a less laborious method to shovel the snow or even a more efficient way to perform your business activities.

It's especially resonant for people in business, in my case this is very applicable to product management. He presents ideas on how organizational environments cultivate good ideas - how gathering people from different departments or business functions can facilitate problem-solving; how creating the right physical spaces such as whiteboards, open work environments, desks facing each other and privacy inhibitors can inspire people to design better.

He contends that ideas are romanticized to be these Eureka moments (think Isaac Newton sitting underneath the apple tree and then he theorizes the law of gravitation) where in most cases they are part of a network of ideas. He believes that the breakthroughs of our history happened through incremental ideas building on each other. "We have a natural tendency to romanticize breakthrough innovations, imagining momentous ideas transcending their surroundings...We take the ideas we've inherited or that we've stumbled across, and we jigger them together into some new shape."

As a direct example, I took on the role of a product manager not through some light bulb flashing over my head but rather incremental developments. I transitioned from a sales capacity to my current post but this required a long process that started with my learning of our competitor's products superficially, then seeing product demos and subsequently trying their products. I quickly found out that I had a knack for research, competitive analysis and improving our products/services/positioning. And to spare you all the details, I eventually became a product manager. Moreover, my firm Unilytics, had it's own renaissance as a software maker very incrementally; it all started innocently enough; we had a customer that detested the default and custom reports offered in current analytics packages and wanted something more specific and intuitive. So, we created a very simple Excel-based dashboard as a prototype and with their encouragement that this was a good start we were motivated.

For many of us who have roles charged with conceiving new ideas, our ideas are almost always the result of people building on other's ideas and having a fertile environment in which they can cultivate. As Johnson mentions innovative environments need to be "liquid networks" that are flexible enough to facilitate dynamic connections between good ideas, but structured enough to support and hold them.

The author identifies the key aspects of our cultural environment that foster innovation, and the recurring patterns that produce great ideas to fruition. He believes that urban environments and technology are potent fertilizers of discovery and invention, and that the connections between people and their ideas are the underlying seed beds of innovation.

The author identifies a number of conditions that enable innovation. One is the "adjacent possible". The idea that what is achievable today is a by-product of the various combinations of events and activities that have occurred prior.

Here is a quick example of innovation: in the 1870s, a French doctor named Stephane Tarnier, saw incubators for chicken hatchlings at the Paris Zoo and hired the zoo's poultry-raiser to build incubator boxes for premature newborns at his hospital. Other hospitals at the time were using devices to keep babies warm, but Tarnier was the first to conduct research showing how incubators significantly reduced the infant mortality rate, leading to their widespread use in Paris and beyond.

A more contemporary and universal example of the adjacent possible, is YouTube. If it was launched 10 years earlier, it would have failed because most people connecting to the Internet were still on slow dial-up connections that could not have handled video sharing. But by the time YouTube launched, more people had high-speed connections. Think of Foursquare or Instagram in the same paradigm.

This book should be in the pantheon of books on Innovation!

To answer "Where Good Ideas Come From", this book attempts to answer the question by looking at everything from Darwinian evolution to shifts in cultural values. A lot of the author's conclusions seem consistent with my own experience: new ideas are usually built on preexisting ideas, more information feeds more ideas, larger groups develop substantially more ideas, and collaboration is a big part of it all.

I really enjoyed the first part of this book as Johnson weaves through a series of insights and stories. Everything seemed solid, thoughtful, well documented. But the ending seemed a bit contrived. Johnson concludes by saying that collaborative and non-market driven efforts will create more/better ideas. This may be true, but I didn't feel that his conclusions were compelling enough or documented enough.

Still, it's a fun read and very interesting. As usual when I read a book by this author, I learned something and felt I got my moneys worth.

Completed "Where good idea comes from - By Steven Johnson". Nicely written book, he took a shot at environmental perspective of getting ideas. He talked about the key patterns which he found quite frequently at the source of great ideas. He listed 7 factors in generating ideas
1. Adjacent Possible - good ideas are collection of existing parts. he was trying to talk about Incremental innovation here.
2. Liquid network - people have light atmosphere to exchange ideas
3. Slow hunch - Ideas take lot of time to develop, at times they takes decades. SO it very important to record your ideas in your notebooks and then making sure you are revisiting those again
4. Serendipity - Collision of hunches from different people which increases possibility of accidental connections between ideas
5. Error/Noisy environment is important for creativity, in fact he claimed that living in noisy environment affect our IQ positively
6. Exaptation - Using one technology or product at different place other than it is meant for. It increases reuse of existing growth of one area into another
7. Platform - This is the most important part. Creating a platform where ideas can interact and collide is difficult to find and create.

Overall interesting read, quite good if you are stuck into same old patter in your personal or professional life. It will give a kick to come out of your comfort zone.

if you think logically, there is hardly anything in this book which you cant figure out by your own .. :)

We are often better served by connecting ideas than by protecting them, according to Steve Johnson in this book. Good ideas are ones that connect, fuse and recombine, crossing conceptual borders. Innovation happens best in small increments on what has gone before, in places where many different minds meet, and through errors as much as through deliberate intent. The author illustrates all of these subjects with fascinating anecdotes.

Unfortunately the last chapter provides a less-than-satisfying attempt to show that innovation is driven more by non-market forces than by market forces. The author provides a chart categorising a large number of well-known innovations into four quadrants, depending on whether they were created by individuals or networks and whether or not their creation was motivated by market forces. The book shows the fourth quadrant (non-market/networked) as the largest one for inventions between 1800 and 2000, and I found this persuasive evidence to support the author's contention that inventions flourish in the fourth quadrant despite the lack of economic incentives... until I did some fact checking.

The invention of GPS is categorised by the author as non-market/networked, and the story of how William Guier and George Weiffenbach invented it in 1958 purely out of intellectual curiosity on the prompting of their boss Frank T McClure is eloquently described. However, a quick check of Google Patents reveals that Frank T McClure applied for US Patent 3,172,108 "Method of Navigation" on May 12, 1958, suggesting that commercial considerations were very much in his mind at the time of invention.

A complete analysis of the 54 items the author has included in the fourth quadrant of his table reveals that 16 were in fact the subject of patent applications by their inventors and so should belong in the second quadrant (market/networked), while 30 others are unpatentable pure-science discoveries such as cosmic rays and global warming. Pure-science discoveries make an important contribution to our knowledge base, but they do not offer any promise of financial reward until a way of harnessing their properties is invented. I could only find three clear cases in the author's fourth quadrant of inventions for which the inventors were not motivated by the possibility of commercial reward: Babbage's analytical engine, radiography and the Internet.

The author refers to a Nairobi cobbler who freely copies the ideas of other cobblers by simple observation, with no licensing agreements to restrict the flow. It just so happens that I have a friend who is a cobbler in Nairobi. He makes about $4 per day from his work, and cannot see any scope for improving his lot because he has no way of protecting any innovations that he might come up with against the incessant cut-throat competition. From his point of view, an absence of intellectual property rights is keeping him poor.

Notwithstanding my problems with the last chapter, I found the book enjoyable to read and, for the most part, highly enlightening with regard to the process of innovation.

The intellectual world we inhabit is diverse and layered. I enjoyed the way Steven Johnson explores these layers, peeling back supposition and myth to establish a compelling model for the evolution of ideas, that is, innovation. His book is well organized with chapters flowing logically and artfully developing and executing their stated purposes. There are many detailed historical narratives of innovation, some obscure some not. Many of his topics are common knowledge but when seen from what he calls the ‘long view’, garner new meaning. These vignettes are compelling. They leave the reader with a sense of the grand collaboration of effort that has brought us into today’s technological world.
My one concern about recommending this book is the author’s devotion to Darwinian evolution theory. As a man of faith and a follower of Jesus I have accepted natural selection and the evolution of the species as the mechanism for God’s creation for several decades. In the last fifteen to twenty years however my thinking has changed. I am recognizing that over the 150 or so years since “The Origin of the Species” was published the physical evidence of proof is lacking. When I think of the other disciplines that sprung up in that era of advancement like electricity, genetics, the periodic table, medicine etc. etc., I see mounds and mounds of innovation and discovery following their meager beginnings. With Darwin’s theories I see speculation and endless theorizing. One hundred fifty years of hypotheses without proof.
Mr. Johnson’s work indirectly supports my criticism of Darwinian theory. Academically natural selection and evolution of species are captivating notions. This I imagine is one reason why Darwin is such a successful teaching model. In essence however, evolution pervades every aspect of human life and history. The book demonstrates the truth that evolution is the keystone of human development; not the evolution of the species but the evolution of ideas. This is the central theme of the book. For example we see evolution in transportation; the good old horse and buggy days have evolved into the era of jet skis and supersonic flight. As an early witness to the industrial revolution Darwin watched the governments evolve from empires to democracies. He saw the market economy convulsed with change; adopting the benefits and discarding the useless. As a child he would recognize the British Army standard issue weapon as the muzzle loaded rifle. But as an old man he watch this evolve into the carbine repeating rifle. He also saw the devastating effects of Richard Gatling’s innovative machine gun which was patented about the same time Origins was published. His way of thinking was shaped by these and a host of other advances. This evolution of ideas can be seen everywhere in life from children creating new games on the playground to the creative posting on Pintrest. Steven Johnson rightly refers to these evolving ideas as innovation.
It is easy to see how a concept so pervasive in his daily experience could be exapted (if you will) and applied to the natural sciences. Darwin had only to project the cognitive structure of the evolution of ideas to the rapidly expanding fields of geologic and biologic sciences, overlaying it (i.e. innovation) onto the mystery of the origin of the species. The fact that it was controversial probably gave it the impetus to grow in popularity. But while the fossil record continues to grow it is quite ambiguous, requiring much interpreting. Darwinian evolution added novel ideas to new theories as it grew but the hard evidence was missing. In my estimation it is still missing.
Mr. Johnson paints a hopeful picture for the future. We can harness the innovation ‘gene’ and apply it to the issues that face us today. All we need to overcome is our selfish ambition and insatiable lust to feed our appetites. I have to think that he is onto something.

Mark A Oliver
Newark, DE 19713

As Steven Johnson explains, "The argument of this book is that a series of shared properties and patterns recur again and again in unusually fertile environments. I have distilled them down to seven patterns, each one occupying a separate chapter. The more we embrace these patterns - in our private work habits and hobbies, in our office environments, in the design of new software tools - the better we are at tapping our extraordinary capacity for innovative thinking." I strongly agree with Johnson that there is much value to be found in seeking commonalities between and among most (if not all) forms of creativity and innovation. Further, I also strongly agree that "we are often better served by [begin italics] connecting [end italics] ideas than by protecting them.

Clearly, Johnson endorses the open business model about which Henry Chesbrough has so much of value to say in two of his books, Open Innovation and Open Business Models. Both in nature and in culture, "environments that build walls around good ideas tend to be less innovative in the long run than more open-ended environments. Good ideas may not want to be free but they do want to connect, fuse, recombine. They want to reinvent themselves by crossing conceptual borders. They want to complete each other as much as they want to compete"...if indeed compete at all.

Co-creation has great power externally for those who forge strategic alliances but it also has great power internally for others such as Apple, a company that "remains defiantly top-down and almost comically secretive in its development of new products." Although Apple has largely adopted a fortress mentality toward the outside world, "the company's internal development process is explicitly structured to facilitate clash and connection between different perspectives." Indeed, its development cycle looks more like a coffeehouse than an assembly line." Insofar as co-creation is concerned, innovation is not a zero sum game: teams of great innovators can - and do - thrive in both internal and external cross-disciplinary environments as can each individual within her or his own private work routines.

To me, some of the most valuable material is provided in Chapter IV, "Serendipity," as Johnson explains how and why a pattern of what he characterizes as a "slow hunch" can crystallize into a "dream-inspired epiphany." If I fully understand this pattern as Johnson explains it (and I may not, at least not the chemical aspects), it suggests a phenomenon of co-creation in which both the conscious and subconscious domains of the mind are involved. He cites a number of sources (e.g. Friedrich August Kekuylé von Stradonitz, Robert Thatcher, William James, Stuart Kauffman, Henri Poincaré), each of whom has contributed to the development of a better understanding of the role that serendipity (i.e. accidental and beneficial connection of ideas) can play throughout the process of creation and innovation.

Johnson examines a formidable challenge: How to create environments "that foster these serendipitous connections, on all the appropriate scales: in the private space of your own mind; within larger institutions; and across the information networks of society itself." Indeed, such fortuitous connections can occur almost anywhere on the planet, given what Cass Sunstein has characterized as the "architecture of serendipity." Johnson asserts, and I agree, that the Web "is an unrivaled medium for serendipity if you are actively seeking it out," given the potential access it offers for collisions, connections, and recombinations.

Throughout his lively narrative, Johnson substantially increases our understanding of how and why some environments ("spaces") nourish innovation and others don't. The seven patterns that he discusses with both rigor and clarity come about as close as any explanation can to equating a coral reef (or rain forest) with the invisible layers of software that support today's Web. He also shares what he perceives to be "the ultimate explanation" of Darwin's Paradox: "the reef has unlocked so many doors of the adjacent possible because of the way it shares." He could have been describing various social media and all of the different "tribes" (as Seth Godin characterizes them) that also "compulsively connect and remix that most valuable of resources: information."

This is one of very few books in recent years about which I felt impending sadness as I began to read its final chapter, followed by an appendix in which Johnson provides a "Chronology of Key Innovations, 1400-2000." I think so highly of it that I plan to re-read it again and frequently thereafter so that, thanks to Steven Johnson, reviewing the seven patterns will continue to "unlock so many doors of the adjacent possible" in both the conscious and subconscious domains of my mind.

This book delighted, inspired and amazed me. The delightful part was the way the author pulled together anecdotes, data, and ideas from other authors and thinkers, and wove them into a coherent new pattern. The presentation style reminds me of the BBC Television series "Connections". Also delightful and inspiring, the author gives insights into his own process of thinking, organizing, and writing.

The aspect that amazed me was the uncanny way in which the author seemed to read my mind: as I read the chapter "The Slow Hunch" I thought to myself that I should find a way to index & organize my own writing and the books and articles I've been reading so I can find tidbits of information when I want them. Then, a few pages later, the author is talking about commonplace books and John Locke's method of indexing - as if in response to my unspoken question. So then I thought, and started an online search, for software that could be used for this purpose. And a few pages later the author is talking about using DEVONthink software for this purpose.

The key nuggets I took away are these: (1) the concept of "the adjacent possible" and that the more ideas you can access, the better you can innovate; (2) "liquid networks" - that movement and change of environment can lead to innovation; (3) "the slow hunch" - that some ideas take a long time to form, and that we can use methods like keeping journals or organizing notes with software, to sustain the memory of a slow hunch over a long period of time.

Not only is this book worth reading, but it also leads to a web of other books, authors, and software for those who want to pursue some ideas further. And in reading the book I do feel inspired to pursue this web if ideas further.

Imagine a coral reef teeming with sea life. Now imagine New York City. Now, using this analogy foster a recursion between structure, resources, and diversity to get competition, failure, and progress.

Take note you inspiration-yearning inventors: be like the little fish in the coral. Work in a powerful city, surround yourself with smart people, give to receive ideas, and fail early to succeed later.

Got that? Good, now go forth and froth!

********************

Johnson writes well. He's smooth, he's crisp, and well read. It's a nice read. But why do we care about knowing the circumstances of the air conditioning invention? What's the relevance of Guttenberg adapting a wine press into a letter press? We already know that tinkering is VERY useful; we know urban centers produce more innovation; we know hundreds of mistakes are necessary to produce success. Halfway through the whack-a-mole history of inventions, I started to wonder if the book is really a thinly veiled self-help for struggling scientists, engineers, and all "creative type" types.

Looking towards the future, Johnson criticizes "the government" (local, state, federal?) for being top heavy, closed sourced, and highly structured (what's more useful, an anchor or a coral?). Here is a contemporary area for discussion in the midst of a recession, yet it goes nowhere as do the few paragraphs on patents. It's nice to read a history spanning from Guttenberg to Darwin, but this meta-thinking book proposes nothing to test out and gives little provocation.

How do we cultivate innovation? Are there some ways to interact, to live, and to work that promote innovation? If so what are the fundamental drivers of innovation? In his latest book, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation (WGICF), Steven Johnson proposes a framework for answering these questions. WGICF is divided into seven sections with each section addressing what Mr. Johnson considers to be a fundamental factor that facilitates innovation.

Unfortunately, the core of his argument is one of analogy with nature or anecdote. From nature, he looks at structures with disproportionate diversity in nature and asks how these devices and behavior can be mapped to human culture and interaction. Although this kind of analogical writing is rhetorically compelling it doesn't provide any kind of true support for the accuracy of his statements. As for the use of anecdotes, they are useful for creating narrative from data and I am well aware they are nearly a requirement for publishing in this genre of non-fiction writing. I can even recognize they are rhetorically useful for creating emotional pull but no many how many stories you tell they simply do not provide evidence to support a thesis.

Now that I've made my caveats, I do think there are lots of good ideas in the book. The factors that Johnson proposes all seem believable and fit in with what I know of cognition. In particular, three topics he includes, at least based on other readings, deeply related to being a strong thinker - making errors and subsequently thinking about the error, building connections between concepts, and actively recalling knowledge. In other places these three features have been strongly tied to becoming an expert as well as to developing an agile mind. It therefore is a reasonable leap to conclude that developing an agile mind expert in some areas can indeed increase your ability to be innovative in some sphere of knowledge.

Despite the lack of evidence, WGICF was an enjoyable read. The style is pleasant, some of the stories are interesting, and all his concepts seem reasonably related to innovation and regardless of how fundamentally tied his ideas are to innovation it certainly won't hurt your innovative muscles to think about the role each o the dimensions listed in this book may play in helping you come up with your next big idea.

All of Steve Johnson's books take seemingly mundane topics and turn them into fascinating stories, intertwined with science, history and human behavior. His latest effort, Where Good Ideas Come From is no exception. With such concepts as the adjacent possible, exaptation, liquid networks, the slow hunch, serendipity ,and platforms, he reveals a discovery process that is much more probable, and probably more accurate, than the eureka experience documented by so many idea generators from history. Much credit goes to the tinkerers and those willing to commit errors. One may wonder how Johnson pulls a book of ideas together like this. He shares one of the tools that he uses, DEVONthink, a personal digital journal, database and semantics analyzer. You'll express dismay as Johnson shares how disconnected our various government entities are that pursue terrorists and marvel at the efficiency of open systems (e.g. universities). It would seem, based on his analysis, that most of the innovation from history comes from a methodical approach, building on the work of others, and an occasional bit of luck. It's an inspiring book for those of us that hold out hope that we might innovate something in the future. Read it and then head back to your lab, or garage, for the next great innovation in...

Very well written and interesting. I bought this on a whim just because the title intrigued me. Johnson has a creatively intelligent approach that I found compelling. I was actually disappointed to arrive at the end of the book. (And in the process happily learned more about Darwin than I thought I would ever care to know.) I find, surprisingly, that I am using some of the concepts in my daily thinking and analysis of various subjects. I often judge a book by how many ideas are sparked in my own head by the ideas conveyed in the book, and in just this respect, the book is worth the five stars!

This was a profound insight that is one possible explanation about how inventing works successfully. Most times it seems, people are struggling for the distant breakthrough, however as this book points out most successful ventures are a combination of the meeting of the slow think with the adjacent possible, in just the right way.

Well written and easy to consume, the book matches things we've learned about in high school, or via mass media with concepts from this book, that serve to connect the dots for inventiveness.

I was about half way through Where Good Ideas Come From when I decided I was going to read any book Steven Johnson comes out with regardless of subject matter. I had previously read The Invention of Air and The Ghost Map and enjoyed Johnson's way of making connections I never would have thought of. Odds are that if anyone else was writing a book called Where Good Ideas Come From, I'd probably just be mildly amused by the concept and moved on, but if anyone might be able to figure out such an ethereal thing, I'd put my money on Steven Johnson.

While it would be relatively easy to take a handful of famous good ideas and point out what they all have in common, Johnson goes much further than that. Sure he talks about the invention of the printing press and air conditioning and television, but he also talks about things like coral reefs and evolution. He doesn't restrict the concept of `good ideas' just to famous and/or profitable things or even just to human innovation. Instead, he talks about all of this and adds to it the sort of habits and environments that promote the cultivation of good ideas.

Johnson's informative, but what makes him so readable is how engaged he is in the subject matter. Reading a book by Steven Johnson is like sitting at a bar with the smartest person you know as he tells you his latest research project with all the enthusiasm and intensity you'd expect from an evangelist. He's not preaching, but he's definitely making a case.

He dispels the myth of sudden `eureka' moments where ideas arrive fully formed or that closed off, secretive research and development labs are the best places for good ideas. Many of the typical notions when it comes to coming up with good ideas aren't nearly as prevalent as one might think. It turns out that ideas, much like people, work better when they are free. The more an idea can float around and bump into things, the better the idea can get. It might take years, but an idea can become a good idea when it interacts with just the right other idea.

Where Good Ideas Come From is one of the few books I've encountered that has actually changed my life and the way I create. I don't think there's higher praise I can give a book than that.

-Jack Cameron

It's always interesting to read a book that discusses the field in which you happen to work. I actually liked the book early on, especially the description of the slow hunch, but soured towards the end when I realized that he would never really explore key concepts, such as persistence, ability to tackle technical risks effectively and systematic approaches (as opposed to the intuitive approaches he focuses on). There is a focus on the glamorous aspects of innovation but much less on what is sometimes the most time consuming and challenging aspect: making it work.

As someone who has created knowledge/patents/academic manuscripts in nonprofit/for profit environments, in high tech and dot com, and as someone who is part engineer/part scientist, I think there are important nuances that are missed when you draw broad strokes across fields and then connects everything to evolution. I don't see myself as an expert but know enough to see what the author doesn't know. I would have liked to see more discussion about what stereotypical engineers do (design, debug), what stereotypical scientists do (question dogma, create knowledge). What is the difference between product development at the store/twitter and product development of medical devices/academic work/pharmaceuticals (one example is that technical risks are much larger and more frequently encountered in medical/academic areas-- in other words, the store can build a website and the challenge is in the business decision, while a drug may fail at many points b/c a technical challenge cannot be overcome).

Why does it matter? Because if you take an innovator from one field and place them in a different field, bad things often happen unless they recognize the differences, assumptions and biases. Whether it's an academic trying to do product development (or vice versa), a biologist doing engineering (or vice versa), someone from the software world trying to do med devices (or vice versa), there are lots of pitfalls during innovation due to the differences.

His argument at the end about open innovation with quantitative "proof" based on categorizing a few inventions was weak and I don't buy it.

Overall I think it's a good introduction, and there are some good points, but he misses some aspects and details.

Steven Johnson is a great writer and presenter, I had the pleasure of seeing him talk about his book, The Ghost Map at the Long Now foundation's Series on Long Term Thinking last year. What a great read! Where Good Ideas Come From is well written and researched. Johnson says, "If there is a single maxim that runs through this book's arguments, it is that we are often better served by connecting ideas than we are by protecting them." I could not put this book down and was inspired by the contents.

If you are interested in how and where innovation flourishes and how to create environments that are supportive to innovation or you're just curious about the history of innovation, read this book.

Kevin Kauzlaric says:

If you're looking to enjoy stories of innovation without heavy academic language, this book is for you. As much as I appreciate scholastic publications on entrepreneurship, it's always refreshing to read a book on the subject from a more journalistic approach.

I was thoroughly entertained by the theme of the book, which is the author's opinion that society is better off served when ideas are connected rather than protected. Steven Johnson contends that ideas want to complete each other as much as they want to compete against each other. The book then goes on to show how seven arrangements, comprising specific physical and intellectual characteristics, promote the breeding and fusion of ideas.

I absolutely recommend this book for a fun and informative read on how good ideas are born. It may inspire you to rearrange your business and home environments to produce more innovative solutions.

Why are some organizations more innovative than others? Stephen Johnson is an innovator who has co-founded several Internet start-ups and written on particular innovations. Where Good Ideas Come From is a collection of Mr. Johnson's findings on the subject of innovation. He identifies seven patterns.

One example is the "slow hunch," i.e. good ideas take a long time to incubate in our brains. This idea is echoed in William Duggan's Strategic Intuition. Another of Mr. Johnson's insights is that new ideas emerge when we connect seemingly isolated topics in our minds. He writes about how Enlightenment thinkers kept a "commonplace book" where they would clip inspirational passages from their daily readings, building an encyclopedia of quotes.

For the modern thinker, Mr. Johnson co-founded an online clippings service that acts as a commonplace book for the web surfer. Using it to collect tidbits of information and reviewing those clippings regularly will help you release your own great ideas.

Read full review at leader-leader.org.

Why are some organizations more innovative than others? Stephen Johnson is an innovator who has co-founded several Internet start-ups and written on particular innovations. Where Good Ideas Come From is a collection of Mr. Johnson's findings on the subject of innovation. He identifies seven patterns.

One example is the "slow hunch," i.e. good ideas take a long time to incubate in our brains. This idea is echoed in William Duggan's Strategic Intuition. Another of Mr. Johnson's insights is that new ideas emerge when we connect seemingly isolated topics in our minds. He writes about how Enlightenment thinkers kept a "commonplace book" where they would clip inspirational passages from their daily readings, building an encyclopedia of quotes.

For the modern thinker, Mr. Johnson co-founded an online clippings service that acts as a commonplace book for the web surfer. Using it to collect tidbits of information and reviewing those clippings regularly will help you release your own great ideas.

Read full review at leader-leader.org.

In my years as a Wall Street strategy advisor and as a life-long student of that which propels us towards our greatest potential, I am fascinated by an interesting structural tension when it comes to personal and professional excellence.

We have at our finger tips, some of the greatest knowledge, tools and processes that can help propel people and organizations towards excellence and yet despite this vast wealth of information, many people (and the organizations they are associated with) struggle.

After exploring many theories over the years, I think I just realized why this is the case and I am staggered by the implications.

I have just finished reading "Where Good Ideas Come From" by Steven Johnson (author of "Everything Good is Bad For You" and "The Invention of Air") and found the ideas contained within to be of staggering profundity.

A Different View on Creativity

With no offence intended towards well-intentioned individuals within organizations who come up with interesting ways to help us be more creative, I have often struggled with the value of some of the ideas they have come up with. Some examples come to mind, including the time I flew across the country for a mandatory, all-hands meeting where we played pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey or another time when I travelled across the country for a mandatory meeting where the primary thing that was accomplished was a competition to see who could build a toy helicopter out of Lego Blocks the fastest.

When I asked people why we were doing these things, I was informed that it was to help us learn to be more creative. I learned something alright but it was not what they hoped I had learned. By the way, I won the helicopter competition, so there are no sour grapes here. :-)

As I read Steven Johnson's book, I realized why we struggle with how to be more creative.

It's because we spend too much time trying to experience an extrinsic-centric learning event when we should be refining the foundational components of what makes a human being a source of unlimited creativity.

As I read his book, I realized why we are often more hit-than-miss when it comes to increasing our potential for creativity. His book also helped me understand why our creativity sometimes grows in leaps and bounds while at other times, we seem unable to recreate this experience, making our growth in creativity seem frustratingly random or lucky.

Seven Key Principles

Mr. Johnson's engaging writing style guides us through seven key areas that must be understood in order to maximize our creativity, the key areas being:

1. The adjacent possible - the principle that at any given moment, extraordinary change is possible but that only certain changes can occur (this describes those who create ideas that are ahead of their time and whose ideas reach their ultimate potential years later).

2. Liquid networks - the nature of the connections that enable ideas to be born, to be nurtured and to blossom and how these networks are formed and grown.

3. The slow hunch - the acceptance that creativity doesn't guarantee an instant flash of insight but rather, germinates over time before manifesting.

4.Serendipity - the notion that while happy accidents help allow creativity to flourish, it is the nature of how our ideas are freely shared, how they connect with other ideas and how we perceive the connection at a specific moment that creates profound results.

5. Error - the realization that some of our greatest ideas didn't come as a result of a flash of insight that followed a number of brilliant successes but rather, that some of those successes come as a result of one or more spectacular failures that produced a brilliant result.

6. Exaptation - the principle of seizing existing components or ideas and repurposing them for a completely different use (for example, using a GPS unit to find your way to a reunion with a long-lost friend when GPS technology was originally created to help us accurately bomb another country into oblivion).

7. Platforms - adapting many layers of existing knowledge, components, delivery mechanisms and such that in themselves may not be unique but which can be recombined or leveraged into something new that is unique or novel.

Insight That Resonates

Mr. Johnson guides the reader through each of these seven areas with examples that are relevant, doing so in a way that hits the reader squarely between the eyes. I found myself on many an occasion exclaiming inwardly "This idea or example is brilliant in its obviousness and simplicity".

"Where Good Ideas Come From" is a book that one must read with a pen or highlighter in hand as nuggets pop out and provide insight into past or current challenges around creativity and problem solving.

When someone decides to explore ways of helping you or your organization be more creative and they are getting ready to explore a rah-rah session, an offsite brain-storming session or they are looking to play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, ask them if they have explored the foundational reasons behind what makes us creative.

And then buy a copy of this book for them.

I believe this book should be mandatory reading for every student, teacher and leader.

We are all students of Life.

We all at some point, teach others.

And if we accept that a leader is someone who influences others and we acknowledge that everyone influences someone at some point, then we are all leaders also.

Educational institutions, governments and corporations should make this book mandatory reading for everyone within their walls.

"Where Good Ideas Come From" is a fun read as well as a profound one.

May your creativity blossom as a result of exploring it.

Create a great day.

Harry

Steven Johnson's book was recommended to me by several people, and with good reason.

In short, Johnson writes clearly and concisely about his idea of the "adjacent possible", i.e. what we think of as great inventions sprung from "aha" moments of individuals are actually only made possible by thousands of small steps in innovation across time. He backs this up with relevant use of research and facts, and I found this book inspiring not only for work but also personally. Some parts can be a little dry, but overall an outstanding book.

At the beginning of Where Good Ideas Come From, author Steven Johnson describes his purpose in writing the book: "The argument of this book is that a series of shared properties and patterns recur again and again in unusually fertile environments. I have distilled them down into seven patterns...." (p.17) Johnson devotes a chapter to each pattern, and peppers the text with ample examples to keep the book lively. I found Johnson's approach to be intriguing and interesting. I expect that any reader who works in product development, planning, strategy, or any creative pursuit, will find special interest in this book. As a general interest reader, I'm in no position to critique Johnson, but I expect that most readers will come away from this book thinking about innovation in new ways.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

Esse é um livro fundamental para quem deseja compreender os principais fatores que contribuem à geração de idéias inovadoras. Fundamentado na história das ciências, demonstra o quanto a inovação depende da colaboração e de ecosistemas criativos que privilegiem a livre circulação de idéias, encontros inesperados entre disciplinas aparentemente desconexas, uma atitude positiva diante da tentativa e erro. Trata-se de um livro de reflexão. Embora seja abundante em exemplos, o autor não cai na tentação de fazer um manual sobre inovação e criatividade. Até porque, impulsionar a criatividade depende de uma atitude e de se propiciar a emergência de um contexto favorável. É um processo orgânico e não mecânico.

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation lays out a convincing argument that the often recounted `Eureka!' moments of discovery are more likely the result of environment and collaboration than singular innovation. By combining history, science, and culture Johnson provides plenty of evidence and covers a wide range of disciplines in developing his thesis on the patterns of ideas and creativity. I found it an enjoyable and inspiring read and recommend it to anyone interested in cultivating innovative thought.

This was at times an insightful expose into the idea of innovation, and other times, it left one flat. The author's explanation for innovation as a by-product of the "adjacent possible," that of doors opening leading to yet further doors of innovation, to expation, etc., gave important insight. However, he at times weighted down his position with anecdote that did not always seem to reflect the concept. Still, all in all, a solid and important effort, albeit one without an ultimate purpose.

Steven Johnson has done extensive research in the sciences and some other fields to give us insights into what makes innovations happen. I found this book an easy and delightful read. I recommend it to people who have studied some scientific field in college.

Johnson has researched how ideas are combined for surprising results. Good ideas don't happen in isolation, they appear out of interactions and exploration. That's the magic behind TED and TEDx events, taking in a variety of information to prepare a full meal of delicious innovation.

This is a good book, and brings interesting points on the topic. However, the points repeat again and again. I think all the points addressed in the book could have been summarized in an article as well, without the need of reading a whole book to understand the author's points.

MY RESEARCH help me to know now that behind creativity and innovation there is only one important category - HONESTY. If you are honest you will become, sooner or later, creative PERSON. There is a very high positive correlation between honesty and creativity, even between intelligence and honesty. My and probably our problem is that less honest and creative people are much better SELF-ORGANIZED. Can it be just opposite? I am working to create such innovation. Will YOU help me (us)?

Great book! Steven Johnson has given us a tour de force of great examples about innovation and ideas. He goes deep and his examples sing. I have used some of his examples in my teaching on entrepreneurship and innovation. SJ has made a real contribution here. Bravo!