Wheregoodideas

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Where Good Ideas Come From, by Steven Johnson

McHenry Stacks BF408 .J56 2010

Animated overview: here 4 min

TEDtak July 10 TEDtalk

blog

cf also Future Perfect: The Case For Progress In A Networked Age Paperback by Steven Johnson 2013

Sum from here with PM's annotations. Another nice riff on the Adjacent Possible

Book Summary:

We love to believe in that eureka moment, where a good idea suddenly comes out of nowhere to the lone genius. In reality, ideas are born in very different situations. In “Where Good Ideas Come From”, Steven Johnson explores the history of innovation to discover certain surprising patterns that explain the birth of good ideas, and what we can do to improve the creativity of our environment.

Here are 10 big ideas from Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From…

1) There are seven patterns of innovation that appear over and over in culture AND in nature.

Steven Johnson explains that innovation and creativity are fractal (appear the same at different scales; simultaneously) 18: they occur by following the same seven patterns throughout the world, whether it’s a city or a coral reef. Culture evolves the same way nature does. More importantly, the world proves in both settings that innovation has its best chance of happening when ideas are connected, not protected.

2) First innovation pattern: The Adjacent Possible

We usually romanticize the generation of new ideas. We like to believe in that breakthrough moment where one enlightened individual jumps ahead many generations with his idea, but reality is quite different. Ideas are are connected like doors. Open a door and you can see new ideas, but only ideas that are connected can be seen.

It’s by learning from other people’s ideas, or previous ideas of our own, that we come up with new ways of seeing the world. It’s a constant connection of innovation. The reason ideas that are truly disconnected fail, is because there’s no connection with the present yet, there’s no application in reality. These ideas are frequently called “ahead of their time”.

The key is not to isolate your room – your idea. Instead, try to connect it to as many doors -people, places, ideas – as possible. Open connectivity can be more important to innovation than purely competative mechanisms" 21. [cf Darwin "fitness"] Trick is to explore edges around you, find environments with many "spare parts" conceptsm devices and approaches lying around and bricleir eg Deke Slayton with all the spare buts to make Os scrubber converter.

eg Alex Lion set up baby incubators 1896 Berlin Expo (Coney Island had one till early 40's0 26 Design That Matters toyota 4runner idea

EG Babbage Diff Engine (Swiss guy built one for 1855 Expo 1884 Wm S Burroughs; But aNALYTICAL eNG WAS BEYOND apOSS 37 aDA PROGRAMMED VAPORWARE; BUT VERY SLOW, really need vac tubes

3) Second innovation pattern: Liquid Networks

Ideas are not single elements. They are more like networks. They are not sparked by the connections between different elements: they ARE those connections. For ideas to happen, you have to place the elements at your disposal in environments where more connections can occur in the right way.

The best networks have two characteristics: they make it possible for its elements to make as many connections as possible, and they provide a random environment that encourages constant “collisions” between all of its elements. This is why “liquid” networks are the best. They provide more stability than gas, where there’s not enough time for meaningful connections to happen, and less rigidity than solids, where there’s not enough randomness. They need to be dense with ideas but plastic enough to work 46

Carbon is really good at combining: w/ 4 elements, make 99% of dry wt H N O2, S only .03% of earth crust 48 (plastic is our version) 1953 Miller and Urey sim primordial soup; several years ago one flask renanlyzed had all 22 amino acids) 49. 100bill neurons

chaotic wandering tribe opposite of monastic scribe 56; 2x entry acc'ting allows less hierarchical and more networked JB; markets distribute decision-making 57 (cf Hayek 218] does not rely on smart top, but "wisdom of crowds?" But janon warns us against hive mind 58

1964 Arthur Koestler epic Act of Creation in art and sci; opening chapter on humor) 58 Dunbar followed ppl and found no eurjeka but regular mtgs 61 questions force recontextualization 61 Flow not laser focus or aha.

Remember, the elements are worthless if they are not properly connected. A trip to the beach with your co-founders will provide more creative ideas than you working alone in the office with all your spreadsheets.

4) Third innovation pattern: The Slow Hunch

It takes time for ideas (hunches) to connect and evolve into something valuable. Patience and contemplation are key aspects of innovation. If it feels completely new, chances are it’s not that valuable. In other words, it takes time to open all the necessary doors in a network that lead to an innovative idea.

Many slow hunches never turn into something useful because our day-to-day matters usually get in the way. We forget them before we give them a chance to make connections and grow. This is why a commonplace book is such a valuable tool. By collecting every bit of interesting information, you have a place where connections can be made, where every review will reveal something new.

Starts w/ hunch that somethings is "interersting," potential solution, so linger/cook. [beautiful mistakes? in Fermat's Last Theorum] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2414proof.html GORO SHIMURA: That was when I became very close to Utaka Taniyama. Taniyama was not a very careful person as a mathematician. He made a lot of mistakes, but he made mistakes in a good direction, and so eventually, he got right answers, and I tried to imitate him, but I found out that it is very difficult to make good mistakes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yutaka_Taniyama

Gruber found that Darwin story of how theory of evol wrong, he had it much earlier than he thought. His notebooks outgrowth of long common-place book tradition: milton, bacon, locke, peaked in Enlightenment 84. Locke had 2 page index, 100 yrs later Jon Bell published 8 pages on how to index; used by Erasmus Darwin chls gpa: full of ideas for inventions 85; Priestly kept one; at the time, common to jump form reading one book to another, and copying passages, often mult times in diff sections of notebook. TB-Lee says idea for Internet not aha. Enquire within Upon Everything.

FBI system stovepiped, so 2 9/11 hunches never could have been connected.

Bottom line: Write everything down, and let it bloom.

5) Fourth innovation pattern: Serendipity

Innovation can’t be planned. Elements are not always in sync with each other. Ideas sometimes arise from happy accidents, hunches connect in an unexpected way. This is the problem with brainstorming sessions: maybe the best idea pops up to one employee later that night, long after the session ended. The secret to help serendipity occur is to build networks where its elements have a chance to persist, disperse and re-connect. This is how doors that weren’t seen before get opened.

However, something else must happen: the discovery must be meaningful to you. Constant bouncing of elements means nothing by itself, there must be a purpose in mind. Building an environment where brainstorming is constantly running in the back is the ideal way to go get serendipitous. Maybe have a database of hunches, were ideas can slowly connect with each other without having the time-pressure of a meeting.

Here’s a good motto to encourage serendipity is “look everything up”, especially in our web-based world! You never know where a Google or Wikipedia search might take you, what connections you may discover…

Otto Loewi put solution from one beating frog on anotjher and it behaved the same, tho stim to go faster; idea came in dream; he's scrawled it but cd not read; came back next night, to prove hinch he's had 17 yrs sooner. in dreams, brain fires ransom, but sometimes a valuable link ignored by conscious brain 101 freud got it backwards; dreams good way to explore the adjacent possible. kekule dream ironic b/c minicks promiscuous carbon.

brain alternatyes between phase lock and random noise; more noise higher IQ 104

Horace Walpole 1754 Three Princes of Serendip Persian fairy tale

DEVONthink dB http://www.organizingcreativity.com/2011/06/devonthink/ http://www.devontechnologies.com/products/devonthink/devonthink-pro-office.html 150$

even mistake about waste triggred idea; fuzzyness makes it useful, but order imposed by him filing; search results look chaotic, but always something there cf looping.

browse bookstan=cks and front page of newspaper indexed varia

nike posted 40 green recipes/patents; orgs must let ideas linger, spread and mix n background all the time for everyone 127 google has list for new ideas, then rated by all.

6) Fifth innovation pattern: Error

Good ideas are more likely to emerge in environments that contain a certain amount of noise and error. Noise and error leads to unpredictability, which in turn leads to innovation. Attempting to eliminate every uncomfortable element of the network also means eliminating every unpredictable connection.

The reason failure is not a bad thing is not because mistakes are good, but because they are critical steps that one must go through in order to create something valuable. Avoiding failure at all cost is a costly stance. Failing fast and moving on to the next thing is a much better philosophy.

deforest audion tube was accumulation of error orver time 134 spark gap to gas burner, just sound waves eg daguesrre and fleming; pacemaker wm jeavons found that errors in sci very common; being wrong forces you to explore 137 //Kuhn

Nemeth did experiment in which confederates made mistakes, upped creativity in word association.

mutations usually fatal, but sometimes open up Adj Poss; change in environment ups value of mutation

7) Sixth innovation pattern: Exaptation (term from SJ Gould)

The more connections the network encourages, the more diverse the purpose and usefulness of something becomes. For example, in an error-free environment, a match is a way to light the stove. However, introduce a blackout, and now it’s a way of lighting up the room. Exaptation is all about exploring more uses of already existing ideas.

The reason cities are better suited for innovation than small towns, is not only because there are more elements, but because the amount of elements is enough for subcultures and diversification to appear. This is the essence of exaptation. Elements connecting in a variety of ways large enough to create unpredictable combinations. Ppl migrate to find kindred souls, leads to criminal gangs and artists (jane Jacos pts out that abandoned bldg are good for this; eg bars, foreign restaurants, pawn shops vs box box 199). 161

If adaptation is about ideas changing to tackle a clear problem, exaptation is about ideas accidentally tackling unforeseen problems. Improve the connections and amount of elements in your network, and you’ll have better chances of achieving exaptation.

Pliny elder died in vesuvius rescue, but 2 yrs before wrote about screw wine press (actuially greeks had it); made german wine possible in 1400; 1440 gutenberg was going to sell magic mirrors to pilgrims but ended by plague) goldsmith training helped in type tweak. Dickens inspector Bucket was device to unite strads, led to det fiction. Freud had salon interdic, so was Homebrew Club

Doug and Kay used/ borrowed desktop; Eno: revo #9 longest track on white album tape loop collage; Mellotron had tape loops on keys [Public Eneny Shocklee sic.

Ruef at Stanford found that creative ppl have broad network diverse 166 // Ron Burt found innovation in ppl who bridge "structural holes" between tightly knot clusters 167 (U of Chic studying RAytheon! Chapter 7 The Social Capital of Structural Holes Ronald S. Burt faculty.chicagobooth.edu/ronald.burt/research/files/scsh.pdf

Structural Holes and Good Ideas www.econ.upf.edu/docs/seminars/burt.pdf

). This refines granovetter strenth of weak ties: these new ideas come from different "idea space" (cf Richard Ogle) made up of tools, beliefs, metaphors and object [go Doug!]. Ties do not just tranmit idea but boost exaption, so not just tweak but tranformation [cf Martin and Osberg?]. Watson and Crick needed Franklin foto, one messed w/ model/scupltures, but also took long coffee breaks walks that encourged random deep dives, even more than office bull sessions .

Apple secretive to outside, but all groups meet continuously vs SOP of design just get repeatedly compromised into mediocrity.

John Snow rotates thru different kinds of task, some eg requiring precision, others rote, but other pjt ideas running in bkgd.

8) Seventh innovation pattern: Platforms

The advantage of platforms is not needing to monopolize creativity. By creating a platform, innovation can come from anywhere. Every time a platform is built for a purpose, that platform serves as platform for other agents for new purposes. New ideas appear where platforms are open. For example, companies like Google and 3M are great examples of cultures where everything in order to have a consistent stream of ideas from the most unexpected sources. The main benefit of having a platform is to create an environment where all the other patterns of innovation can thrive.

Platforms generate ideas not only by fomenting specialization and diversity, but also by making it easy to “recycle” and reuse existing resources. This drops the costs (of all kinds?) of imnnovation low.By having an actual place (even if it’s virtual) where elements can connect, every resource is open for grabs. Imagine all the data that a platform like Facebook gathers nowadays that isn’t being used yet. It’s only a matter of time before some other element that’s involved in this platform finds a use for it. It's not enough for info to flow, it has to be recycled [/repurposed]208

In the end, platforms encourage team work. They show that it’s better to share than hide. They tell us that we don’t need to know everything. We can focus on one thing and wait for the platform to provide the rest.

sci think 1-10 mill species on coral reef; (most?) important kind of keystone species are gaia like, create the conditions of lofe, Clive Jones calls "ecosystem engoneers" 182

GPS origin story; apps for America run by Sunlight Fdn; Brent C UCSC cement 203; as undergrad he dreamed of lowring template into water where bldg assemble itself using nature ; dad a dr, picked up mag showed huge cost osteoporosis [npr ? so hard to glue wet things] joe palca oyster glue http://m.npr.org/news/Science/175550939 stanford heard about cement; khosla knew where to get a lot of C02

9) Ideas have to be fully liberated to spark innovation. The fourth quadrant of innovation is the best situation for this.

The best environment for ideas are open-source environments, where ideas can be built upon and reshaped as needed by many people. This scenario is what Steven Johnson calls “The Fourth Quadrant”. There are four quadrants of innovation: individual/market centered, non-individual/market centered, individual/non-market centered and non-individual/non-market centered. History shows that the closer we get to the fourth quadrant, that is, the less money driven and individualistic the environment, the more innovative the ideas become.

This doesn’t mean it’s bad to be creative with individualistic goals in mind. However, it does mean that it’s best for society when we open up our ideas to everyone instead of keeping them to ourselves.

It’s interesting to see that this quadrant wasn’t always the best suited for innovation. In the Renaissance, the third quadrant (individual/non-market) provided more innovative ideas. The reason was that networks were slow and unreliable, and the entrepreneurial spirit wasn’t developed yet because there wasn’t enough economic incentive. Not surprisingly, the idea of the lonely genius is born during this time. By the time Gutenberg’s press and postal systems across Europe bloomed, and population densities in European cities increased, collaborative environments provided most of the innovation. This has only accentuated nowadays with even more collaborative tools like the Internet. he plugs inventions in 4

Carrier AC started w/ problem of keeping air dry for printing. Univ have ivory tower rep, but The Pill came out of rsearch at several. TJ thot ideas grav to 4th quad; Lessig

In coral or rainforest, yes competiton, but collaboration 244 (vs desrt tortise: slow, armor, store water?]

10) Connections and spillovers are the natural state of ideas, while societal and artificial dams keep them in chains.

Ideas naturally gravitate towards the fourth quadrant. Although we may be inclined to believe that the lack of economic incentives of the fourth quadrant would be a turn-off for innovation, it’s actually those economic incentives that become an obstacle. With the promise of a payday, people are motivated to have good ideas, but they protect them instead of sharing them. Our “market of ideas” is inefficient, because we have created artificial dams, such as copyrights and patents, that are designed to keep ideas out of other people’s grasps.

However, this does not mean all restrictions should disappear. The lesson is this: we should stop believing that without economic incentives or artificial scarcity of intellectual property, innovation would disappear. On the contrary, strictly speaking about innovation, it would thrive like never before, although probably with a huge economic trade-off that is not desirable either. There is a balance worth pursuing.

Remember, there is nothing “natural” about intellectual scarcity. It’s all artificial. Ideas not only thrive in open environments: they seek it. Sure, competition has been a great source of ideas. But so has the crowd. When looking at your own environment, embrace the random, connected, full of mistakes and hunches, diverse and non-competitive philosophy of the fourth quadrant.

Good ideas will come.