WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM by Steven Johnson

Chance favors the Connected mind.


I read Steven Johnson's book, Where Good Ideas Come From, about 3 years ago. 

He has a great insight into how we innovate and has that wonderful quality of being able to explain complex subjects in simple language. This little animation is a very neat summary of the main themes in his book. 









Johnson's book breaks the innovation process down into "the 7 Patterns of Innovation":


1. The Adjacent Possible

2. Liquid Networks

3. The Slow Hunch

4. Serendipity

5. Error

6. Exaption

7. Platforms


Each one of these headings carefully breaks down the progressive steps from being in the right place at the right Time (Time should be with a capital "T" as it relates to the era we belong to) through networking, incubation, pure luck, the need to make mistakes, borrowing (and learning), and how paradigms (platforms) are needed in order to shift.


This is really worth comparing with "Why Nations Fail" by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson.

More about that on another day.


Let me know what you think.



CL 26/07/2017