Book Review: Where Good Ideas Come From (Steven Johnson)

Steven Johnson returns once again in print after his insightful, bestselling Everything Bad Is Good for You and The Invention of Air to address the universal question: What sparks the flash of brilliance? He answers in his infectious, culturally ubiquitous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture.

Steven Johnson is a science writer, once a rare breed confined to the academic domain and textbooks. With the emergence of science and social journalism, and journalists venturing into investigative science and social sciences, this genre has become popular with the mainstream reader in the past decade. Thomas Friedman’s best selling, The World Is Flat is already in multiple editions and variants have emerged (updated, expanded and made contemporary) including the 3.0 version!

Steven Johnson has made his book, Where Good Ideas Come From highly readable, if you enjoy:

1)    Innovation and innovative practices

2)    History of inventors

3)    Inventions and their origins/inspirations (Appendix covers all major inventions from the years 1400-2000)

4)    The merging of theories (evolution), chemistry, ecosystem science, social history and geography.

And, even if you did only possess only a cursory knowledge of each of the disciplines mentioned, you would still discover something useful. How are coral formations one of the most ecological clever and sound structures in architecture (and how it clicked with Darwin)? Why were some of the key inventions of the last few centuries (like the World Wide Web), actually collective innovations? Is invention still predisposed in the realm of solitude for the Lone Wolf, or is it a product of Collective Thought? In other words, for every secrecy-bound company like Apple, are there others equally successful that are the antithesis: open environments, networked, non-marketplace-bound products and services?

This book is also suited for soft-necked, armchair, workstation-bound, intrapreneurial types – those delegated with the responsibility of engaging an innovative culture at their workplace. Would this dream be realised, or is it still a pipe-dream - a small horn tooted, perfunctorily, by uncreative, left-brain dominant managers? Johnson attempts to address these issues, and I believe his argument goes full circle, and he succeeds on an optimistic note, however with some useful caveats. Johnson identifies seven principles for the genesis of ideas, and the conditions for development of good ideas for our careers, companies, personal lives, society and culture. He makes us reconsider our paradigms about the concept and business of invention and innovation.

His final chapter, The Fourth Quadrant may sound familiar with fans of financial-guru/author Robert Kiyosaki, yet it has nothing in common except a quadrant. The simple 2X2 matrix covers the relationship of individual/networked inventiveness and market/non-market orientations. It threads all the principles he proposed earlier seamlessly. You may wish to link it with other models of product differentiation, financial literacy, and brand values.

Highly recommended.

Take the Lead To Inscribe and Describe

Writing is part of the trilogy of communication mystery. The other two are speaking and reading. Mastery of language involves the relationship of visual, auditory and kinesthetic, which is to see, hear and feel. When we write, we do more than communicate our message – we also express ourselves through personalities and writing styles.

Writing can be therapeutic, so it has been prescribed as writing therapy. Just writing down our thoughts and feelings can help us refocus, feel better and gain better clarity.

With audio-books, we can hear the author speak their written words. It lends another dimension to the medium of ‘the written word’.

You can be a better writer by reading regularly and extensively. This can go beyond reading the newspapers. Increase your knowledge base with bestselling books, journals, literature, letters and essays. Take every opportunity to write properly and with clear intention. Write your best even on Social Media 2.0.

Here are a few books that I am reading, and will follow up with book reviews.

This book (by bestselling author, Steven Johnson) is about the history of innovation and the evolution of thinking, through cross-disciplinary linkages. Reeves Lim presented this book to me as a gift as part of our collaborative research into corporate innovation and innovative practices.

This is an inspiring read about strengthening relationships through challenges and hardship. I met the authors, Sue & Andrew O’Brien at the Gold Coast Marathon in July and they are also keynote speakers.

This is one of my favourite authors on magic – Jamy Ian Swiss. I attended a magic workshop with him in 2004, and he is a critical thinker, honest book critic and a literary writer. This is his latest book on the performance and art of magic.

All the books are available through Amazon.com