∎ Where Good Ideas Come From- The Natural History of Innovation - Johnson - 2011 Reading Session 202408141548
Annotations of Where Good Ideas Come From- The Natural History of Innovation - Johnson - 2011 from 20240814 at 15:48
Johnson describes how Darwin’s fundamental theory of evolution did not appear all at once, but instead shows up in Darwin’s personal notebooks in different ways for years before he finally recognizes and crystallizes his thinking into a full theory:
It is simply hard to pinpoint exactly when Darwin had the idea, because the idea didn’t arrive in a flash; it drifted into his consciousness over time, in waves (Johnson, 2011, p. 81)
I recall experiencing similar “waves” as I developed a few of my successful contributions to scholarship. Ideas show up over and over again. There is no one point where an idea forms, except in the retrospective we tell ourselves about the idea.
This suggests the importance of the recursive systemic view. Ideas really are made up of smaller ideas, and those made up of smaller ideas. Some ideas come directly from other thinkers, while others come from observation of the world, while others come from creative abduction, and still others come from editing and feedback. These components all interact in a system and any one small change produces perturbations in the form — but if an idea is powerful enough, it will emerge, one way or another (“good moves in a design space”).
Ideas are powerful enough when they fit a niche in the broader idea ecosystem — that is, they can draw on the right untapped or uncompeted-for resources, and they solve the right problems.
We can track the evolution of Darwin’s ideas with such precision because he adhered to a rigorous practice of maintaining notebooks where he quoted other sources, improvised new ideas, interrogated and dismissed false leads, drew diagrams, and generally let his mind roam on the page. We can see Darwin’s ideas evolve because on some basic level the notebook platform creates a cultivating space for his hunches; it is not that the notebook is a mere transcription of the ideas, which are happening offstage somewhere in Darwin’s mind. Darwin was constantly rereading his notes, discovering new implica tions. His ideas emerge as a kind of duet between the present-tense thinking brain and all those past observations recorded on paper. Somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean, a train of association compels him to revisit his notes on the fauna of the Galápagos archi pelago from five months before. As he reads through his observations, a new thought begins to take shape in his mind, which provokes a whole new set of notes that will only make complete sense to Darwin two years later, after the Malthus episode. (Johnson, 2011, p. 83)
This is a magnificent demonstration of a powerful knowledge innovation system and practice.