There are only three magazines that I love to read, two if you only count those actually still in business. The #1 spot is held by Wired, which, as many of you probably know, serves up a delicious stew of tech, culture, gadgetry, science, and entertainment all in a candy coated shell of awesomeness. I’ve yet to find another credible source that can, in one issue (one, mind you!), tell me how to survive a post-apocalyptic zombie onslaught, detail the history of the internet with an infographic, and interview a guy in the middle of Kansas who figured out how to get 100 mpg out of a car…in his barn. This stuff is gold, folks.
Anyway, this month’s issue contains a fascinating article titled “Where Ideas Come From” focused on the idea of collaborative ideation. Believe it or not, I wrote a post back in May by the same title that explores the same concept. I pulled some of the quotes that spark thoughts for me. If you’re looking for some food for thought, this one is a decent issue to pick up.
“We share a fascination with the long history of simultaneous invention: cases where several people come up with the same idea at almost exactly the same time.” – Steven Johnson
And another, which is a concept that also shows up in Scott Belsky’s brilliant Making Ideas Happen, a book published before the Wired interview:
“It’s amazing that the myth of the lone genius has persisted for so long, since simultaneous invention has always been the norm, not the exception.” – Kevin Kelly
“The musician Brian Eno invented a wonderful word to describe this phenomenon [collaborative ideation]: scenius. We normally think of innovators as independent geniuses, but Eno’s point is that innovation comes from social scenes, from passionate and connected groups of people.”
And some interesting thoughts on the nature of ideas themselves. My experience has been that my ideas always start out as one thing until they are exposed the influence, encouragement, and criticism of others.Then they morph into something entirely (and thankfully) new and better:
“Ideas aren’t self-contained things; they’re more like ecologies and networks. They travel in clusters.”
On innovation:
“Innovation is about more than just having the idea yourself; you also have to bring everyone else to where your idea is.”
“[I]deas that leap too far ahead are almost never implemented–they aren’t even valuable. Gregor Mendel’s ideas about genetics, for example: He formulated them in 1865, but they were ignored for 35 years because they were too advanced. Nobody could incorporate them. Then, when the collective mind was ready…three different scientists independently rediscovered his work within roughly a year of one another.”
So there you have it. Key lesson hidden among the science-y talk: artists who lock themselves in their holes and never come out will never fully develop the best ideas that they’re capable of creating. I don’t buy that it takes a village to raise a child, but I do believe your best ideas will always be a hybrid of what you bring to the table and those you allow into your process.
