Author Steven Johnson draws on psychology, history and the natural sciences in explaining about the types of environments in which good ideas are generated. He believes that new ideas are limited by the supply of ideas which people can draw from.
About Where Good Ideas Come From
Johnson's theory is that innovation and new ideas thrive in open networks of freely flowing information from various disciplines in which idea collide, break apart and recombine in new and unexpected ways. Where Good Ideas Come From is subtitled A natural History of Innovation and provides an understanding for the reader of how good ideas come about.
Hunches over Aha moments
The author favors the “slow hunch” over the “Aha!” moment. The section on slow hunches takes the reader from the FBI's work on 9/11 to Google's development of Google News. According to Johnson, good ideas can come from the impact of the iPod, iPads, Web searches, text messages or Tweets and the real-world effects of individuals and organizations operating in a fertile information environment. What is important is learning how to recognize conditions that spark creativity and innovation.
History as Examples
Johnson includes many anecdotes from the history of entrepreneurship and scientific discoveries as examples of the search for good ideas. At the same time, he explores the human and natural worlds for insights and patterns to help the reader understand what stirs the human mind and creates good ideas.
It is a good starting point for any individual who wants to come up with ideas that will be successful in the rapidly changing environment and society of the 21st century. Johnson opines that curious people used old stuff or ideas to produce a new idea from the effects of open networks.Examples of this include stories about Darwin’s theories, 9/11, and a story about Miles Davis as the author promotes hunches and serendipity in themselves and their organizations.
According to the publisher, Riverhead Books, “most exhilarating is Johnson's conclusion that with today's tools and environment, radical innovation is extraordinarily accessible to those who know how to cultivate it.” However not all reviewers are as enthusiastic about Where Good Ideas Come From.” In a Wall Street Journal article published in the Wall Street Journal on October 10, 2010, reviewer Megan McArdle wrote " We are all of us, every day, discovering many things that don't work very well and a few things that do. Reducing the history of innovation to a few 'big ideas' misses the full power of human ingenuity "
About the Author
Steven Johnson is the author of the bestsellers The Invention of Air, The Ghost Map, Everything Bad Is Good for You, and Mind Wide Open, as well as Emergence and Interface Culture. He is the founder of a variety of influential websites- currently, outside.in-and is a contributing editor to Wired. He lives in Brooklyn, with his wife and sons.
Johnson, Steven, Where Good Ideas Come From. NY: Riverhead Books/Penguin, 2010.
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