Where Good Ideas Come From
Steven Johnson says that great ideas rarely come in a single flash of insight. Instead, they usually take a long time to gestate. Most breakthroughs occur when two hunches collide — or in other words, when two half-baked ideas combine to form a fully baked one. Therefore, he says, “chance favors the connected mind.” And the world we’re living in now gives us ever more opportunities to connect with other minds.
He’s got a book about this, too: