Book of the Week: Where Good Ideas Come From

24 Jul 2013

Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson Before I have something to market, I need a good idea. To tackle this problem, I turn to Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. Johnson discusses 7 patterns that emerged from studying innovation. To save you the time from reading the book, I refer you to a 5 minute youtube video on the subject. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU&w;=560&h;=315] The 7 patterns are the adjacent possible, liquid networks, the slow hunch, serendipity, error, exaptation and platforms. The adjacent possible is why scientist have independently made the same discoveries around same time. The world was ready for the innovation since the framework for it was built. Innovation and creativity is about connecting stuff together. You get a bunch of stuff, some of it good, some of it bad and mix it a bit. It stews and suddenly something triggers and you have a good idea. Johnson makes the argument that cities speed up innovation, because they have enough density to allow for interactions that lead to innovation. Is there an optimal density of people to have? Instead of reading about where ideas come from, how about generating your own good ideas with design thinking. Purchase Where Good Ideas Come From on Amazon.com or check it out from your local library.