Book: Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
Author: Steven Johnson
Rating: 4/5
Video:
Brilliant book that should excite the minds of anyone interested in new ideas and innovation. Johnson approaches the topic by analysing the history of famous inventors and looking for common elements that lead to their success.The book is broken up into a chapter analysing each of these elements, with supporting examples both recent and historic. The chapters I found particularly interesting were The Adjacent Possible and The Slow Hunch.
The Adjacent Possible investigates a theme I have found particularly true in my own career, which is that new ideas are really just doors opening between one idea and the others already stored in your brain. Keeping ideas to yourself and limiting your reading to your expertise therefore limits the numbers of combinations possible. It seems all too common to meet internet entrepreneurs that guard there ideas with their lives and in the process limit the number of adjacent possible ideas available. I’ve certainly tried this technique at times and have come to the firm conclusion that the more people you share your ideas with the better.
The Slow Hunch investigates whether innovative ideas really do occur in the light bulb flash moments stereotyped by genius inventors. What Johnson exposes is that most remarkable ideas in-fact linger in the back of the mind for a long time before they mature to a point or make a connection that makes them remarkable. I think most of us would have experienced this phenomenon, hopefully this post is actually adding to someone’s slow hunch right now.
There were times in the book that the scientific history lesson approach started to wear thin for me but Johnson always managed to bring it back on track. Overall I loved reading this book and would recommend it to any budding entrepreneurs out there.