Kyle Harrison
to-read
Where Good Ideas Come From (Steven Johnson)
Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
- Author
- Steven Johnson
- Published
- 2010
- Pages
- 326
- Recommended
- 2 times
Where Good Ideas Come From (Steven Johnson)
Why it’s on the list: Johnson’s natural history of innovation, which develops the “slow hunch” and “adjacent possible” ideas that other books cite.
Where I heard about it
- An old note to myself — saved around 2013–2015 as “Steven Johnson- where good ideas come from.”
- Replies to Sarah Guo (@saranormous) — named in the thread answering her question on X, March 2025: “is there a book / essay about environments that best support scientific discovery? Not about specifically bell labs, cavendish, xerox parc, los alamos - but why these places were so productive?” Full list: Is There a Book… (tweet).
About this edition
Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation (Riverhead Books, 2010).