WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM

Observations from Steven Johnson’s

BchimentoNJCU 4004EDTC625 Using Intgr Sftwr Across Curr Dr. Shamburg

Johnson, S. (2010). Where Good Ideas Come From. New York: Riverhead (Penguin).

Darwin’s Paradox Darwin’s Paradox – so many different

life forms, occupying such a vast array of ecological niches, inhabiting waters that are otherwise remarkably nutrient-poor.

http://www.coralreefinfo.com/

Klieber’s law

As life gets bigger – it slows down “Negative-quarter-power scaling” Mass vs. metabolism Equal number of heartbeats – just

takes bigger animal longer to use theirs up

Energy and transportation growth follow Kleiber’s laws, BUT

As cities get bigger, they generate ideas at an even faster clip.

Ideas increase with population, Ideas per capita increase. Geoffrey West - but innovation and

creativity is 17 times bigger in city 10 times bigger.

Man-made environments

10/10 Rule 1920 – first AM radio station Late 1920’s – AM radios in American homes

1950’s-first color broadcast (NBC Tournament of Roses Parade)

1960’s- color broadcast become the norm

1969 – Sony creates VCR Early 1980’s – VCR become staples in homes

DVD, cell phones, personal computers, GPS – all basically follow the 10/10 rule.

YouTube

Within 16 months of the company’s founding, YouTube was streaming over 30 million videos a day

Why did it grow so fast?

http://www.youtube.com/

Adjacent Possible

http://emergentfool.com/2010/03/11/the-adjacent-possible/

Just at the reach of making a discoverySome bit of information or idea or learning is missingOther pieces need to fall into place first

Zone of Proximal Development

http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm

The path of evolution is a continual exploration of the adjacent possible.

Single carbon atom

Compounds Cells Tissue Organisms Plant/Animal/

Mineral

http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/211_fall2010.web.dir/andy_chamberlain/firstpage.html

Evolution of Good ideas

Good ideas are not conjured out of thin air; they are built out of a collection of existing parts, the composition of which expands (and, occasionally, contracts) over time

How to develop good ideas

Liquid Network Serendipity Slow hunches Error Noise Exaptations Platforms

Liquid Network Not so rigid that ideas

can’t grow and develop

Not so much space where ideas can’t reach each other.

Free flow of ideas allows ideas to connect, grow, reconnect with others.

Liquid networks complete ideas.

Serendipity

You have to set out in good faith for elsewhere and lose you bearings serendipitously.

Go for a walk, take a shower/bath - remove yourself from the problem; get into an associative state.

According to NYTimes, web has pushed culture toward more serendipitous encounters.

Slow Hunch

Hunch that developed over time is more common than sudden flash of inspiration

Have to keep hunch alive Keep a journal or commonplace book

and review it to refresh your hunch Sleeping on the problem actually

helps

Error Spark gap telegraph led to the invention

of vacuum tubes, which in turn led to computers, television, etc.

Fleming discovered penicillin by bacteria accidentally entering his lab

Error in reaching for a resistor led from an oscillator that recorded heartbeats to the pacemaker that regulates them

Noise

Albert Einstein has been considered the patron saint of useful messiness, and once stated “The cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind; what does an empty desk sign?

http://unclutterer.com/2008/06/11/in-praise-of-a-little-mess-be-a-little-scruffy/

Exaptation

Defined as using a feature or structure for something other than its original intended purpose.

Ex. In Indonesia, Timothy Prestero redesigned neonatal incubators out of automobile parts because the locals had access to and knowledge of automobile engines.

Platforms

Tim Berners-Lee Side project at CERN Academic use Military (ARPANET) HTML WorldWideWeb In an open platform, good ideas can

come from anywhere.

Good ideas as developed in House,M.D.

http://www.housemd-guide.com/season3/316secret.php

http://www.housemd-guide.com/season7/716out-chute.php

Build a tangled web

An idea does not pass from a single neuron to another single neuron in the brain. Instead it is jumps across the liquid network and connects and reconnects with multiple neurons.

http://plantinglines.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html