Steven Johnson wants to replace the “you” in “eureka” with “we.”
The author of “Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation” and a related TED Talk that has been viewed more than 1.5 million times, Johnson argues that the light-bulb metaphor of creation − where one person, often working alone, is struck by a moment of blinding insight − is inaccurate.
Instead, Johnson believes many good ideas come as the result of conversation and cooperation. Even something as revolutionary as Darwin’s theory of natural selection is more likely to “fade into view over a long period of time” than be the product of a single a-ha moment, according to his research.
Johnson credits the creation of the coffeehouse as an impetus for many modern ideas. It is, he argues, a place where folks come together and talk about pressing issues and, presumably, find solutions. (He is silent on whether many moments of inspiration are lost to a barista who shouts out orders and mispronounces names, or to customers who grouse over the high price of the latest venti concoction at the neighborhood Starbucks.)
Johnson’s book and TED Talk are 11 years old, but they are poised for a re-examination today.
For one thing, the world has invested heavily in the collaborative model, either because of theories like Johnson’s or as part of a larger communal push that Johnson’s work reflects. In education, where I spend most of my time, it’s hard to find a contemporary lesson that doesn’t feature some element of discussion.
“Work with a shoulder partner” and “get into groups” have become common teaching directives, far more so than in previous generations, when the main instructional mode was lecture and the primary way to demonstrate understanding was working solo.
These are tough times for students to be introverts, for sure. The world favors the extrovert or at least the ambivert, that rare bird at home in solitude and a crowd.
Another reason for Johnson’s work to come back into vogue is more obvious. Society is lurching toward some semblance of normal after several years of forced isolation because of the coronavirus pandemic.
During much of that time, coffeehouses, along with most everything else, were closed or operating on a heavily modified business model, one that kept people apart rather than together.
Some of the workarounds for face-to-face transactions, such as ordering by app and contactless deliveries − are here to stay, further minimizing the sorts of interactions that Johnson argues are essential for new ideas to percolate.
Nor were restaurants and coffeehouses the only businesses affected.
In every area of communal life, similar losses were felt. Businesses large and small transitioned to work-at-home models, and Zoom meetings replaced gathering around the conference table. Churches began to congregate via video feeds. Physical classrooms were replaced with virtual ones.
And while each of these substitutes still carried opportunities for collaboration, few people would argue that the replacements were equal to the originals. Nor has the return to “normal” been seamless. With some folks preferring to work from home, will their potential innovations also be AWOL?
It will be interesting to see if the world experiences an “idea crash” in the next few years as an intellectual echo of the various supply chain and financial woes cycling through now. Or maybe we will see instead a reflowering of various creative endeavors driven by individuals instead of groupthink.
Perhaps physical presence doesn’t matter as much in a world where social media sites have become the coffeehouses of a new age. Who is to say that the next great idea won’t come as the result of a Twitter thread with hundreds of contributors or a series of Wattpad entries that a group of readers interprets in a slightly different way?
The coffeehouse may look different, but the creative outcomes may be the same. The spirit of innovation could be experiencing its latest evolution.
Reach Chris at chris.schillig@yahoo.com. On Twitter: @cschillig.
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