'Let others build on your ideas; borrow, recycle, reinvent'; my book of 2010 by Steven Johnson
Can't recommend Steven Johnson's new book highly enough. 'Where Good Ideas Come From: The natural history of innovation' is a brilliant examination of how novel thinking happens, the conditions in which it thrives, and the ways in which we might alter the world around us to foster greater innovation, invention and creativity. As I've noted before, read one way it's just a very inspiring guide to how one might re-engineer a creative business to deliver more expansive creative ideas. Every CD in the land should have this on their Christmas List.
The last paragraph of the entire book sums up neatly the tone and thesis of the whole endeavor.
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You may not be able to turn your government into a coral reef, but you can create comparable environments on the scale of everyday life: in the workplaces you inhabit; in the way you consume media; in the way you augment your memory. The patterns are simple, but followed together they make for a whole that is wiser than the sum of its parts. Go for a walk; cultivate hunches; write everything down, but keep your folder messy; embrace serendipity; make generative mistakes; take on multiple hobbies; frequent coffeehouses and other liquid networks; follow the links; let others build on your ideas; borrow, recycle, reinvent. Build a tangled bank.
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Put it on your Christmas List at Amazon, here.
