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 folders 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.
Steven JohnsonThis is not the wisdom of the crowd, but the wisdom of someone in the crowd. Itโs not that the network itself is smart; itโs that the individuals get smarter because theyโre connected to the network.
Steven JohnsonI suspect millions of people from my generation probably have comparable stories to tell: if not of sports simulations then of Dungeons & Dragons, or the geopolitical strategy of games like Diplomacy, a kind of chess superimposed onto actual history.
Steven JohnsonIf you look at where innovation - defined as ideas, not as commercial product - tends to live, the university system is remarkably innovative.
Steven Johnson