Your CODE for generating good ideas

This is an adaptation of Steven Johnson’s book “Where good ideas come from”. A truly inspiring resource that I attempted to encapsulate in a simple formula, which is easy to remember and can be applied in your idea generation process.

Innovation is innate to all of us. As children, we have been taught to make connections using puzzles, engage in social chaos, play with toys that have an element of surprise, and so on. You’ll be amazed that these activities and behaviors actually form the secret sauce of innovation.

Johnson mentions that a good idea is more like a swarm, and not a single entity, and the inception point is not inside someone’s head but from the outside, specifically social interactions. Let me break this down for you:

Good ideas come from looking left and right. I like to reference the greater than > symbol because it reflects the realm of the next best possible solution available at any given moment. The concept of identifying the Adjacent Possible is truly where evolution and innovation takes place. Ideas that aim to take a big leap, often fail because they’re too ahead of time and the world is probably not ready to embrace them. The Adjacent Possible challenges us to work within the constraints of existing knowledge. It is about pushing the boundaries that you work with and thereafter each new combination opens up the possibility of other novel combinations.

A hyphen is used to join words. It reflects that information flow encourages and enables new ideas and innovation occurs when perspectives meet and merge. It’s important to understand the power of space. All organizations can be chaotic or rigid, but they should have a structure to enable the exchange of viewpoints. An ecosystem with more fluidity and free-floating conversations can significantly impact the potential of innovation. Steven Johnson calls it the Liquid Network, because water is a solvent for innumerable molecules. Similarly, urban cities also act as intellectual hubs by fostering a network of different and disparate ideas coming together. Such intellectually stimulating places, can significantly contribute to our quest of idea generation.

The plus symbol indicates the process of slowly building your ideas and layering it. Innovation arises from collaboration. Johnson explains how good ideas are not a flash of insight but rather a sustained maturing of hunches, which demand time and cultivation to bloom. He stresses on the importance of writing our ideas down, and revisiting them from time to time. He exemplifies the theory of Slow Hunch by throwing light on how Darwin spent 25 years on refining his ideas before the Origin of Species. Most of the hunches do have a crux of something profound, however they lack the key element to translate into a promising idea. Exposing oneself to a liquid network can lend to the cultivation of slow hunches and this could lead to the creation of novel combinations.

The exclamation mark denotes the element of surprise in our process of discovery. We often find inspiration in environments and habits that can aid surprisingly new discoveries and help explore the adjacent possible. Dreams can sometimes be magically insightful. We may accidentally discover something we are not looking for, or hunches might disperse and recombine to create unrelated connections. Sleeping on problems can also trigger our problem solving ability, and therefore it’s important to be receptive to the makeup of our sub-conscious mind. Johnson calls this revelation Serendipity.

The ampersand represents conjunction- it reflects Johnson’s theory of Exaptation, wherein the purpose of a product or service can be applied to an unrelated subject to serve a completely different need. Repurposing ideas is a great tool for innovation and in many ways is closely tied to the Adjacent Possible. Many innovations that we see today are a result of borrowing and modification from one unrelated field to another. Liquid Networks, such as urban cities facilitate this cross-pollination of ideas and enable lateral thinking. This horizontal collision can open up unexpected avenues and possibilities.

All in all, Johnson’s effort to meld the physical world (nature) and the human mind is what really stuck with me and strengthened my belief about the credibility of each concept. The book tells us that good ideas are deliberate and long considered. It’s all about having a mind receptive to ideas, letting other people build on them and demonstrating the willingness to learn new information.

Allowing chaos and creativity to interact and make lucky connections, whilst making productive errors can help create real rewarding value. Lastly, by being aware of the spaces we reside in, and the richness of our daily lives, we can make connections to successfully innovate.