Where good ideas come from | Steven Johnson

TED · 1.7M views · 2010-09-21 · 18:17

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Overview

Steven Johnson's TED talk argues that good ideas come from connected, slow-building hunches and liquid networks, from London coffee houses to Darwin to the modern web, rather than lone Eureka moments.

On Hacker News

HN people point to it as the talk version of his book on innovation, and for his brief discussion of liquid networks.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2010–2020

Topics

Ideas & learning (other)Futurism & technology and society Psychology & human behavior

What people said

portman · 2010-12 · Recommendation
"Where Good Ideas Come From" by Steven Johnson I'm fairly stubborn, so it takes a lot for me to change my ways. This book has changed my daily work routine. Johnson outlines 7 environments that have historically produced the most innovative ideas. It's easy to apply the lessons to your typical working day. Best book I've read in probably 5 years. 4-minute Teaser: [LINK] TED Talk: [VIDEO] Amazon: [LINK]
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Jugurtha · 2020-12 · Reference
Why do so few events that shape your life or are worthy of mention take place in the suburbs, a place where people mostly sleep/rest? This reminds me of "liquid networks" from Steven Johnson's book "Where Good Ideas Come From". Here's a talk where he addresses it briefly, timestamped at the moment he starts talking about "liquid network"[0] Things worth telling mostly happen in cities, or the internet. - [0]: [VIDEO]
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RiderOfGiraffes · 2010-11 · Reference
His TED talk is here: [VIDEO] There's also a link on the submitted page to the RSA animation on drive that's been submitted here so, so many times before: [LINK] For discussions on that, try these: [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] <- This one has comments [LINK]
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Sources

Video by TED, played through YouTube.

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