On Innovation

A new idea is a network of cells exploring the adjacent possible of connections that they can make in your mind.

-Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“Good ideas are not conjured out of thin air; they are built out of a collection of existing parts, the composition of which expands (and occasionally, contracts) over time.”

-“Where Good Ideas Come From” by Steven Johnson

“Innovative environments are better at helping their inhabitants explore the adjacent possible, because they expose a wide and diverse sample of spare parts - mechanical or conceptual - and they encourage novel ways of recombining those parts.

-from “Where Good Ideas Come From” by Steven Johnson

“Dunbar's research suggests one vaguely reassuring thought: even with all the advanced technology of a leading molecular biology lab, the most productive tool for generating good ideas remains a cirele of humans at a table, talking shop. The lab meeting creates an environment where new combinations can occur, where information can spill over from o

To make your mind more innovative, you have to place it inside environments that share that same network signature:

networks of ideas or people that mimic the neural networks of a mind exploring the adjacent possible.

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Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From