It may not be possible to 'win the future,' in President Obama's words, but if we're going to encourage more innovation, it's not enough for us to just dig in and work harder. We also need to encourage surprise and serendipity. We need to play each other's instruments.

As much as we sometimes roll our eyes at the ivory-tower isolation of universities, they continue to serve as remarkable engines of innovation.

When it's a sharing and improvisational meeting, where you're riffing off other people's ideas, that actually can be productive.

The fusion of art and technology that we call interface design.

We are strangely biased, as individuals and media institutions, to focus on big sudden changes, whether good or bad - amazing breakthroughs, such as a new gadget that gets released, or catastrophic failures, like a plane crash.

Silicon-based life may be impossible for one other reason: silicon bonds readily dissolve in water.

When you don't have to ask for permission innovation thrives.