Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation Reprint Edition

by Steven Johnson (Author)

208 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-1594485381

ISBN-10: 1594485380

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A fascinating deep dive on innovation from the New York Times bestselling author of How We Got To Now and Farsighted

The printing press, the pencil, the flush toilet, the battery--these are all great ideas. But where do they come from? What kind of environment breeds them? What sparks the flash of brilliance? How do we generate the breakthrough technologies that push forward our lives, our society, our culture? Steven Johnson's answers are revelatory as he identifies the seven key patterns behind genuine innovation, and traces them across time and disciplines. From Darwin and Freud to the halls of Google and Apple, Johnson investigates the innovation hubs throughout modern time and pulls out the approaches and commonalities that seem to appear at moments of originality.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] rich, integrated and often sparkling book. Mr. Johnson, who knows a thing or two about the history of science, is a first-rate storyteller."--"The New York Times"

"A vision of innovation and ideas that is resolutely social, dynamic and material...Fluidly written, entertaining and smart without being arcane."--"Los Angeles Times"

"A magical mystery tour of the history and architecture of innovation."--"The Oregonian"

"A rapid-fire tour of 'spaces' large, small, mental, physical, and otherwise... Where Good Ideas Come From may be the ultimate distillation of his thinking on these issues... One admires the intellectual athleticism of Johnson's maneuvers here."--"Boston Globe"

About the Author

Steven Johnson is the bestselling author of Future Perfect, Where Good Ideas Come From, The Invention of Air, The Ghost Map, and Everything Bad is Good for You, and is the editor of The Innovator's Cookbook. He is the founder of a variety of influential websites and writes for Time, Wired, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Marin County, California, with his wife and three sons.

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Product details

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Riverhead Books; Reprint edition (October 4, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594485380
ISBN-13: 978-1594485381
Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 208 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #46 in Home Design & Construction (Books)
- #23 in Engineering Patents & Inventions
- #36 in Interior Design

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Jack H

Great Read on the Nature of Creativity and Ideas

April 14, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

"Where Good Ideas come From" by Steven Johnson was given to me as a Christmas gift by someone who knows I love reading about how ideas originate and where common things we use today originated. It was not exactly what I expected, but still very good. It was less about individual case studies and more about ideas in general, and how a setting can effect ideas and implementation. A very interesting read and leaves you with a lot to take away from it. There is also an index of important inventions and when they were invented and by who in the back which was an interesting thing to look through as well.

Overall, the book was written at a very high level when it comes to Where Good Ideas Come From, which was an interesting approach with examples thrown in for good measure. I am very glad I received and read this book, even if it wasn't what I expected.

tl;dr An interesting read on the general nature of ideas, not case studies

11 people found this helpful

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ACH

Mildly informative until it turns into a fake argument

June 3, 2019

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The book stitches together anecdotes about innovation and new ideas illustrating in a fresh way some of the (mostly old) "frameworks" about innovation (it tends to happen in cities, it tends to build on stuff that's already there, etc).

Decent writing if you can get over the smart tone of the author.

Until the last chapter when it turns into a weird argument against private sector and intellectual property laws - "When you introduce financial rewards into a system, barricades and secrecy emerge, making it harder for the open patterns of innovation to work their magic." Markets, the private sector, and "private corporations" are the villains here with the "public sector modern research university" as the hero. The author is twisting everything into a pretzel to fit into that argument ruining what was a decent book at that point.

For example he's deliberately mixing practical innovations such as pencils, air conditioning or helicopters with theoretical knowledge such as the shape of the DNA, the theory of relativity, or cosmic rays. He then makes a random inventory of these different things based on how "big" they seem to him and then puts them into "market" (profit motivated corporations or individuals) vs "non market" (non profit motivated academics) categories based on what he thinks the motivations of their inventors / discoverers were. He then says "look there's more oranges in the non market bucket than apples in the market bucket therefore the oranges farmer is better than the apples farmer."

He also rants about the intellectual property laws. Patents are the tools private sector firms use to "block the flow of ideas", you see, as opposed to universities that create open networks and share ideas. Never mind that universities file for patents at a higher rate than private firms. Never mind that private firms and universities collaborate closely for they are natural partners. Never mind that publishing a patent is precisely intended to share information that would otherwise be kept secret (the exclusivity is the price society pays the inventor to disclose the invention so that others can see it and build on it - maybe not a perfect system but it has been working).

He even brings up Marx and Engels for the sole reason to praise them for being so smart as to recognize Darwin's ideas as important. Really just to praise them and to show us he knows what Hegelian dialectics means. So smart. If you bring up Marx in a book on innovation you should probably mention that failing to understand technological progress is one of the many failures of Marxism. Marx did not see a beyond steam engines.

There was no need to this straw man argument at the end, other than to probably scratch an ideological itch.

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Jennifer

Not too bad...

October 8, 2017

Format: Audible AudiobookVerified Purchase

Almost finished with the book... maybe a chapter left. I was recommended this book during an entrepreneurship lecture series at my university. It really gave me some perspective as someone who wishes to get into the tech industry. I do agree with some of the other reviews, that this could have been summed up in a couple of pages. It also came across a bit dry during some of the chapters, but that may have been from the voice over (i bought the audible as I only have time to read while I drive... lol). However, I enjoyed hearing the anecdotal evidence and how he came to some of the conclusions for each chapter. If you are short on time, I recommend at least googling his TED talk or reading the main points of the book.

5 people found this helpful

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Stanwell1840

key ideas go down well

October 6, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

As fluffy quasi-technical bestsellers go, this one was pretty good. Good enough, in fact, that after reading it I bought two additional copies which I used as thank you gifts in a professional setting. Pros: lovely meditative writing style, with lots of nature imagery. A small number of really good ideas about innovation, and many helpful examples. Cons: a little bit meta, a little bit strange. Specifically, he also discusses his own technique for managing a database of quotes and ideas; then you realize that the work itself is based on this collection, which accounts for some portions of the book that are a bit thin or lacking in through line. Or maybe more deeply explicated than what the point is worth. For some readers this might actually be a positive, an inspiration, a fresh or original element. Because I lean to denser, more technical works (George Eliot, anyone? (; ), to me it's a disadvantage. One ought to do better at hiding the machinations. It would be either a good beach read, for a technical person, or a striking source of inspiration, for a more artsy one. If you don't want to get it and read it, you could settle for looking up 'the adjacent possible'.

9 people found this helpful

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Reid McCormick

not the best...

June 30, 2019

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Steven Johnson has provided some of the most interesting works I have read over the past couple of years. His books How We Got to Now and Wonderland are incredibly interesting and some of my favorites. These books were both informative and entertaining, so I grabbed Where Good Ideas Come From expecting another great work.

Unfortunately, this book left me less than enthused. I am not exactly sure why. The book just never clicked for me. Part of me feels like the content was too broad. In his other books, Johnson has a very specific subject which ties everything together really well.

After I read it, I saw this book was published a good five years before How We Got to Now and Wonderland. Maybe over those few years, Johnson matured as a writer.

This book was definitely better than most books, but not as good as some.

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Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation Reprint Edition

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