I’ve always thought that all your best ideas/innovations don’t happen to you when you are stuck behind a desk trying to think of great ideas… its normally in the shower, out running, on the golf course or whatever escape you chose to follow. But is that true? Do the best ideas just pop into your head? Are all ideas born out of eureaka moments?
Steven Johnson thinks not. He says that ideas evolve over time. They spend a long time dormant (10-20 years) taking time to incubate and need interaction with other ideas to develop. This video (and the corresponding book) from Steven is an amazing insight into where good ideas are formed. Its also a great animation, at 4 mins long its well worth a look.
and here is Steven at TED
So to build innovative spaces we need to create environments that allow people to meet frequently to exchange ideas (coffee house) so that their ideas can fuse together and become stronger than their parts. As Steven says, ‘chance favours the connected mind‘.
Great Post ;p