the hub magazine - cool books- nov / dec 2010

Where Good Ideas Come From

Innovation as the art of the “adjacent possible” is at the heart of Where Good Ideas Come From, by Steven Johnson, reports Megan McArdle in the Wall Street Journal (10/5/10).

The basic premise is this: “New ideas are limited by the supply of existing ideas and by the speed with which those ideas can combine to form new ones.” On this basis, “innovation is most likely to occur when ideas from different people, and even different fields, are rapidly banging against each other.”

This is “why cities foster much more innovation than small towns: Cities abound with serendipitous connections.” Other factors include “the tolerance of failure, as in Thomas Edison’s inexorable process-of-elimination approach to finding a workable light-bulb filament.”

Steven also suggests that “competition and market forces are less important to innovation than openness and inspiration.” He presents an analysis of “history’s most important innovations,” and finds that “market-led innovations are in the minority.”

However, Megan criticizes Steven for putting too much emphasis on “the great-discovery” model of innovation, and not enough on the incrementalists, citing Walmart as having pursued small refinements to big effect.

“That’s not because Sam Walton emerged from his lab one night waving blueprints for a magic productivity machine,” she writes. “The company made continual, often tiny, improvements in the management of its supply chain.”

The Other Side of Innovation

Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble think that 3M and Google have it all wrong when it comes to innovation, reports the Economist (8/28/10). Vijay and Chris are Tuck School professors and co-authors of The Other Side of Innovation.

They think 3M and Google, among others, make a mistake by expecting their workers to spend a certain percentage of their time on innovation. They argue that this “let-them-loose approach spreads resources thinly and indiscriminately.”

The result, they say, is “a thousand small initiatives rather than focusing on a few big problems.” The authors also say it’s a mistake to offer employees bonuses for fixing inefficiencies, arguing that the results are typically incremental, and seldom breakthrough.

And they are against the “skunkworks” approach because “it ignores the basic reason for working for a big company in the first place — to use its superior resources to supercharge what you are doing.”

Their solution is to build what they call integrated “innovation machines” that are “held accountable for their ability to learn from mistakes rather than for their ability to hit their budgets.” They cite BMW for having thrown together its battery and brakes specialists to design brakes for hybrids, for example.

In short, “students of innovation must pay more attention to big companies” because “they have the muscle to chase big prizes” and the capacity “to conquer new territories while continuing to cultivate old ones.”

Proofiness

In Proofiness, Charles Seife “reveals the truly corrosive effects on a society awash in numerical mendacity,” writes Steven Strogatz in the New York Times (9/17/10).

Charles defines “proofiness” as “the art of using bogus mathematical arguments to prove something that you know in your heart is true — even when it’s not.” He “examines the many ways that people fudge numbers, sometimes just to sell more moisturizer but also to ruin our economy, rig our elections, convict the innocent and undercount the needy.”

In other words, “proofiness” is the mathematical equivalent of “truthiness.” Our susceptibility is “that numbers impress us.” For example, Joseph McCarthy’s accusation about Communists in the State Department was more persuasive because he held up a list naming exactly 205 Commie infiltrators.

A day later, in a letter to President Truman, the number changed to 57, and then it turned out McCarthy didn’t actually have a list at all. But it didn’t matter because “the numbers intimidated McCarthy’s critics.”

Proofiness, concludes Steven Strogatz, “is more than a math book; it’s an eye-opening civics lesson.”



	NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2010


	Cool Books

	Where Good Ideas Come From Innovation as the art of the “adjacent possible” is at the heart of Where Good Ideas Come From, by Steven Johnson, reports Megan McArdle in the Wall Street Journal (10/5/10). The basic premise is this: “New ideas are limited by the supply of existing ideas and by the speed with which those ideas can combine to form new ones.” On this basis, “innovation is most likely to occur when ideas from different people, and even different fields, are rapidly banging against each other.” This is “why cities foster much more innovation than small towns: Cities abound with serendipitous connections.” Other factors include “the tolerance of failure, as in Thomas Edison’s inexorable process-of-elimination approach to finding a workable light-bulb filament.” Steven also suggests that “competition and market forces are less important to innovation than openness and inspiration.” He presents an analysis of “history’s most important innovations,” and finds that “market-led innovations are in the minority.” However, Megan criticizes Steven for putting too much emphasis on “the great-discovery” model of innovation, and not enough on the incrementalists, citing Walmart as having pursued small refinements to big effect. “That’s not because Sam Walton emerged from his lab one night waving blueprints for a magic productivity machine,” she writes. “The company made continual, often tiny, improvements in the management of its supply chain.” The Other Side of Innovation Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble think that 3M and Google have it all wrong when it comes to innovation, reports the Economist (8/28/10). Vijay and Chris are Tuck School professors and co-authors of The Other Side of Innovation. They think 3M and Google, among others, make a mistake by expecting their workers to spend a certain percentage of their time on innovation. They argue that this “let-them-loose approach spreads resources thinly and indiscriminately.” The result, they say, is “a thousand small initiatives rather than focusing on a few big problems.” The authors also say it’s a mistake to offer employees bonuses for fixing inefficiencies, arguing that the results are typically incremental, and seldom breakthrough. And they are against the “skunkworks” approach because “it ignores the basic reason for working for a big company in the first place — to use its superior resources to supercharge what you are doing.” Their solution is to build what they call integrated “innovation machines” that are “held accountable for their ability to learn from mistakes rather than for their ability to hit their budgets.” They cite BMW for having thrown together its battery and brakes specialists to design brakes for hybrids, for example. In short, “students of innovation must pay more attention to big companies” because “they have the muscle to chase big prizes” and the capacity “to conquer new territories while continuing to cultivate old ones.” Proofiness In Proofiness, Charles Seife “reveals the truly corrosive effects on a society awash in numerical mendacity,” writes Steven Strogatz in the New York Times (9/17/10). Charles defines “proofiness” as “the art of using bogus mathematical arguments to prove something that you know in your heart is true — even when it’s not.” He “examines the many ways that people fudge numbers, sometimes just to sell more moisturizer but also to ruin our economy, rig our elections, convict the innocent and undercount the needy.” In other words, “proofiness” is the mathematical equivalent of “truthiness.” Our susceptibility is “that numbers impress us.” For example, Joseph McCarthy’s accusation about Communists in the State Department was more persuasive because he held up a list naming exactly 205 Commie infiltrators. A day later, in a letter to President Truman, the number changed to 57, and then it turned out McCarthy didn’t actually have a list at all. But it didn’t matter because “the numbers intimidated McCarthy’s critics.” Proofiness, concludes Steven Strogatz, “is more than a math book; it’s an eye-opening civics lesson.”


	PDF \| Subscribe \| Home