innovation.htm

Notes on Innovation

Source: Steven Johnson on Where Good Ideas Come From

Innovation doesn't come from bright ideas from a single human being. They come from "ideas having sex" and creating new solutions.

Ideas happen in highly concentrated environments. Where people can experience issues, connect their ideas with other people and find new alternatives.

Once humans moved to dense environments the amount of innovation increased. We invented farming, leading to factories, leading to modern cities.

Innovation comes from the "adjacent possible", when an idea occurs at the right time. When the resources to make the idea possible are available.

E.g., when Charles Babbage created the first computer we didn't have transistors or vacuum tubes to create the first circuits. It would have taken years to assemble his "thinking machine".