Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

A fascinating deep dive on innovation from the New York Times bestselling author of How We Got To Now and Farsighted

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 as 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 the innovation hubs throughout modern time and pulls out the approaches and commonalities that seem to appear at moments of originality.

• Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most
• How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
• Life Is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment
• A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas
• Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
• Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2013
• The Wisdom of Crowds
• The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
• How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking
• Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World