"Where Good Ideas Come From"
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 1:02 AM I'm always amazed at the pace Steven Johnson keeps. He runs his own start-up web company, writes best-selling books, Tweets great insight on social media and other topics, and who knows what else. He is one of our great modern thinkers.
Having said that I've been holding off on reading his book "Where Good Ideas Come From" even though the title sounds great. I read a few related newspaper and magazine stories/reviews and figured I was good.
But after viewing this promotional video, I'm having second thoughts on diving into the whole book itself. Berlin's video narration is enticing enough, but the animation explaining the thought process is extraordinary (How do they map out that storyline, let alone do the time-lapse video? That alone is a great idea).
The key takeaway for me from Berlin's video message is that great ideas incubate over time, evolving as give-and-take with others occurs. I have all kinds of ideas kicking around in my head, but many are loose ends that seem frayed. Perhaps there is hope after all that the chaos in my mind will coalesce and spit out some brilliance. Hopefully some time reasonably soon.
