Where Good Ideas Come From

The printing press, the pencil, the flush toilet, the battery—these are all great ideas. But where do they come from? What kind of environment breeds them? What sparks the flash of brilliance? How do we generate the breakthrough technologies that push forward our lives, our society, our culture? Steven Johnson's answers are revelatory: he identifies the seven key patterns behind genuine innovation and traces them across time and disciplines. From Darwin and Freud to the halls of Google and Apple, Johnson investigates innovation hubs throughout modern times and extracts the approaches and commonalities that appear at moments of originality.