Where Good Ideas Come From

As Steven Johnson explains in his animated book video for Where Good Ideas Come From, chance truly does favor the connected mind. We’re living in the great Age of Connectivity, with the ability to reach out and access ideas from all over the world, nearly instantaneously. So many times, great innovative “hunches” lay dormant in the background, waiting for another missing piece to round out a greater concept. One hunch, combined with another, though, can lead to a breakthrough idea and complete the full vision. The history of innovation, it turns out, can be thought of as a series of collisions between smaller hunches. Over time, these collisions and connections lead to fully-formed concepts.

Looking forward to Steven Johnson’s new book on October 5! If it’s as thought-provoking as earlier works like Emergence and Everything Bad is Good for You, it’s a keeper.

UPDATE: Also check out the Wall Street Journal’s feature on Steven Johnson and his new book that appeared in the newspaper’s Weekend edition: The Genius of the Tinkerer.

[Via: Core 77]