Book · 2010 · invention
Where good ideas come from
The Natural History of Innovation
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It made me think of Steven Johnson's book Where Good Ideas Come From and one of his arguments in that book is that great ideas often come from adjacency.
Ezra Klein · The Ezra Klein Show · Apr 2024 Listen at 35:55 What they say about it
- Discussing book content“where good ideas come from”9
The best things said about it
Where Good Ideas Come From actually I read that one really good and I think he reads his own books on Audible so you get to hear his voice.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · Dec 2023 The spark file comes out of the book I wrote Where Good Ideas Come From which the opening chapter which is called the slow hunch.
When Steven Johnson in his book Where Good Ideas Come From I mean the TLDR of that book is it comes from a marketplace of ideas.
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Why people recommend it
Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson is an insightful non-fiction book that explores the historical and environmental patterns that foster innovation, such as the concept of the slow hunch and serendipitous collisions. Jason Calacanis recommended the book on This Week in Startups, praising its exploration of how physical spaces like office cafeterias foster innovation and noting that the author narrates his own audiobook. Ezra Klein drew upon the book's arguments about adjacency and creativity during a discussion with Adam Moss. Steven Johnson himself appeared on How I Write and This Week in Startups to discuss how the book originated the spark file concept, the challenges he faced organizing its innovation patterns, and how he utilized early software tools to write it. Furthermore, Johnson demonstrated the book's utility by loading its chapters into NotebookLM to answer complex research questions about historical intelligence failures.
Every mention
Jason Calacanis uh Stephen went on to write 13 books uh where where good ideas come from actually I read that one really go… 2
“uh Stephen went on to write 13 books uh where where good ideas come from actually I read that one really good and I think he reads his own books on Audible so you get to hear his voice”
“there's a great book called uh um how innovation works um and a companion that's called uh where great where good ideas come from by stephen johnson”
Steven Berlin Johnson so I've loaded up here um uh you I think it's five chapters from where good ideas come from and I actually… 3
“I wrote a lot about the tools that I was using to write the Books you know I wrote about this tool Devon think that I used for a long time I was I am a big scrier fan I've written about that and in in my book where good ideas come from I talk a lot about how you”
“okay so thought I'd start appropriately enough where I've loaded up like five chapters from that book where good ideas come from um as sources um and so when you begin a notebook LM you know one of the the the first things you do is you kind of Define the documents that you want to work with”
“so I've loaded up here um uh you I think it's five chapters from where good ideas come from and I actually just did a question before um just to preload it so there's a whole riff about 911 and the kind of intelligence failures in 911 in that book”
Steven Johnson so that the spark file comes out of um the book I wrote where good ideas come from which the opening chapte… 2
“so that the spark file comes out of um the book I wrote where good ideas come from which the opening chapter which is called the slow hunch”
“yeah and and like um in a way the like the trickiest book like that for me was um where good ideas come from which was ultimately organized in these kind of patterns of innovative environment”
Erik Torenberg when stephen johnson in his book where good ideas come from i mean the tldr of that book is it comes from a… 1
“when stephen johnson in his book where good ideas come from i mean the tldr of that book is it comes from a marketplace of ideas”
Ezra Klein It made me think of Steven Johnson's book were good ideas come from and one of his arguments in that book i… 1
“It made me think of Steven Johnson's book were good ideas come from and one of his arguments in that book is that great ideas often come from adjacency”
Other mentions (2: passing, ad reads, own books)
“I'm sonal and I'm here today with Chris Dixon a general partner on a 6 + Z crypto and Steven B Johnson who is the author of many books including where good ideas come from”
“today's episode features Marc Andreessen Ben Horowitz and author Steven B Johnson who's written numerous magazine articles 11 books so far including where good ideas come from and also hosted the PBS series”