Where Good Ideas Come From

The Natural History of Innovation

By: Steven Johnson

Narrated by: Eric Singer

Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

One of our most innovative, popular thinkers takes on - in exhilarating style - one of our key questions: "Where do good ideas come from?"

With Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson pairs the insight of his best-selling Everything Bad Is Good for You and the dazzling erudition of The Ghost Map and The Invention of Air to address an urgent and universal question: What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen?

Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture, Johnson provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward.

©2010 Steven Johnson (P)2010 Penguin Audio

Fascinating

An excellent book that is unfortunately overshadowed by the narrator's poor execution of a "British" accent. I'm not sure why that's necessary? Historical people are not characters. Just read the book, please.

Doesn’t really Understand but good

This was interesting but the personality of the writer was evident in his philosophy of being against intellectual property. He takes a communist view of that when it is not like that. You have to encourage people who are inscrutable and difficult to understand and not able to negotiate the social world very well. These are the creators. Like it or not, the pioneer spirit and high intelligence and motivation for truth are extremely rare, and if you give authority to those who simply want to make a living, then they drag us all down. We need these people who do these things and we need to support them. I know people who predicted the intellectual history of the west 30 years ago but no one listened to them because of the “lowest common denominator” cacophony of voices which TRANSMIT interesting ideas and therefore stimulate the creative thinkers.

The problem is that people don’t know what they don’t know... and so they actually locked up Marconi in an insane asylum after he began talking about his idea for radio. In a more current sense, we ignore people who don’t have degrees when getting a higher degree REQUIRES conformity to the current view.

I think this book is excuse making for the proliferation of people who decide that they know what “thinking” is because they have a degree. It’s like the same old social patterns of religion declaring that it knows truth. He cites Kuhn, without really understanding what Kuhn is saying about social forces.

So if you know that going in, it’s a stimulating read—ironically by accident in just the way he touts in the book, which supports that part of the ideas which is really good. That’s the best part of this—how ideas are found by accident. I know why this happens so there is much more to the story and I wrote a critical review because this book was worth it.

I highly recommend this book even with the “everybody wins” or “everyone gets the creativity out of the blue because that feels good” assertion, Lol. MUCH better than most but not always for the reasons that the author intended. Much love.

On Serendipity and its role in innovation

This audio book is a great summary on innovation both in nature, science and the arts. I got the Kindle edition for note taking and reviewing concepts.

Listening to this book is a GOOD IDEA 👌

Excellent, from start to finish, especially for entrepreneurs. The conclusion is my favorite of all the chapters.

Another Steven Johnson feast

Would you listen to Where Good Ideas Come From again? Why?

I might listen again but more importantly I take away ideas that change my habits and get me excited.

Who was your favorite character and why?

John Locke - He really is but I haven't finished. The book is a review of aspects of creativity not a story. I listen in short bursts and it is a good thing since every two minutes, I hear another idea that keeps me occupied for a day.

What about Eric Singer’s performance did you like?

I can't decide if I like his using different accents for historical figures or not. He is very good at it.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, too rich, too powerful

Any additional comments?

Johnson's The Invention of Air is another gold mine

Loses gas

interesting and intriguing until its not. It's not a long book to begin with. So many similar titles that give so much more

Innovation isn't just the Eureka moment

This book changes the common thinking that great ideas come from a single Eureka moment. Ideas start with a slow hunch and they need the environment with the right amount of order and chaos, a liquid network, and great people to make it a reality.

There are hundreds of innovations that only happened because one innovation came first. For example, there would be no Instagram with no internet. There would be no YouTube with no computer. That's the adjacent possible. You open one door, and suddenly, you opened four more possibilities.

Some other learnings from the book:
* Serendipity only happens for the ones who try;
* Errors guide you in the search of the truth. They're the inevitable path to innovation. Don't be afraid of failing;
* Take notes. All the time. You may not know that you're cultivating a slow hunch.

Awesome

Brilliant balanced and intellectual while still very accessible with easy lessons that can be implemented. The reef analogy comparison to cities in great

A solid, deep, fairly advanced book

It’s not an “easy” read but nothing good comes easy. It’s dense but highly valuable. This author is no joke when it comes to human innovation, history, and esoteric vocabulary.

I’ll see you at the coral reef!

Fantastic.

Extremely good reading performance, fantastic connections between topics and solid research. Definitely recommend it. Get it now