Where Good Ideas Come From

Oct 3, 2024 1:19 PM

Author:Steven Johnson

Where do good ideas come from? And what do we need to know and do to have more of them? In Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson, one of our most innovative popular thinkers, explores the secrets of inspiration.

Steven Johnson has spent twenty years immersed in creative industries, was active at the dawn of the internet and has a unique perspective that draws on his fluency in fields ranging from neurobiology to new media. Why have cities historically been such hubs of innovation? What do the printing press and Apple have in common? And what does this have to do with the creation and evolution of life itself? Johnson presents the answers to these questions and more in his infectious, culturally omnivoracious style, using examples from thinkers in a range of disciplines - from Charles Darwin to Tim Berners-Lee - to provide the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of inspiration.

He identifies the five key principles to the genesis of great ideas, from the cultivation of hunches to the importance of connectivity and how best to make use of new technologies. Most exhilarating is his conclusion: with today's tools and environment, radical innovation is extraordinarily accessible to those who know how to cultivate it. By recognizing where and how patterns of creativity occur - whether within a school, a software platform or a social movement - he shows how we can make more of our ideas good ones.

Reviews

[A] useful primer in how to become a more confident and skilled businessperson.

—— Orange Coast Magazine

I'm enthusiastic about [St. Hilaire's] approach to persuasion, which is very simple, and which is fundamentally about positivity: making other people feel good about themselves makes them feel good about you.

—— Charles Purdy, Monster.com Jobs Blog

27 Powers of Persuasion offers readers some powerful new ideas on how to get others to follow you."

—— CNBC

St. Hilaire provides...interesting and useful methods for presenting ideas.... He's practical...though he very wisely recognizes how humans think and act. His anecdotes are apt and instructional..., and show how executives and others can present their thoughts in ways that are palatable to others without necessarily compromising or losing integrity.

—— Miami Herald

The result of Delves Broughton's time there is this funny and revealing insider's view, revealing precisely because he is genuinely fascinated by the world of business, and his fascination is infectious

—— The Sunday Times

He sets the scene brilliantly, capturing an essence of HBS that is part cult, part psychological morass, part hothouse... For anyone planning to attend this remarkable institution, Delves Broughton's book is invaluable... A quite brilliant book

—— Simon Heffer , Literary Review

Delves Broughton sketches out the Harvard curriculum and his fellow travellers with skill and wit... His work is a handy introduction for those who crave the mega-bucks and mega-power that HBS brings many of its graduates. But while it is not the kind of book that non-business readers will naturally reach for, it deserves a broader audience

—— The Times

A useful primer for anyone considering a similar path, or just curious as to how Harvard churns out all those gleaming little masters of the universe

—— Washington Post

A particularly absorbing and entertaining read

—— Financial Times

A cautionary tale for those who believe that the grass - and their future paycheck - would be greener if only they could jump the fence into the rarefied world of the Masters of Business Administration

—— New York Times

Original, clever, funny - and full of insights into one of the most influential insitutions in the world

—— George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer

What They Teach You...' is a hilarious, perceptive and unflinching account of the strange world of Harvard Business School, its students and the wider world of business which they are set to dominate. It is the Liar's Poker of the MBA set. Destined to become a classic

—— Albert Read, General Manager of Conde Nast

Informative, wry, and well-written, this book will make rewarding and pleasurable reading for anybody wishing to understand why business is the way it is.

—— John Cassidy, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Dot.Con

Kirkpatrick's amazing reporting details what happens when a hacker culture turns into a multi-billion-dollar firm. Mark Zuckerberg sought to maintain that hacker energy, and it's fascinating to hear what resulted

—— Chris Anderson, Editor of Wired and author of The Long Tail

Engrossing. . . . A detailed and scrupulously fair history of [Facebook]

—— Rich Jaroslovsky , Bloomberg Businessweek

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