Quotes from Steven Johnson

A good idea has to be correct on some basic level, and we value good ideas because they tend to have a high signal-to-noise ratio. But that doesn't mean you want to cultivate those ideas in noise-free environments, because noise-free environments end up being too sterile and predictable in their output. The best innovation labs are always a little contaminated.

BALANCE SPRING WATCHES (1660)

BOYLE'S LAW (1662)

Being correct is like the phase-lock states of the human brain, all the neurons firing in perfect synchrony. We need the phase-lock state for the same reason we need truth: a world of complete error and chaos would be unmanageable, on a social and a neurochemical level. (Not to mention genetic.) But leaving some room for generative error is important, too. Innovative environments thrive on useful mistakes, and suffer when the demands of quality control overwhelm them.

LIGHT SPECTRUM (1665)

MICROORGANISMS (1674--1680)

HOOKE'S LAW (1676)

PRESSURE COOKER (1679)

las ideas son como un trabajo de bricolaje: se construyen a partir de restos. Tomamos las que hemos heredado, o nos hemos encontrado por casualidad, y las reorganizamos dándoles nueva forma.

CALCULUS (1684, 1693)

LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION (1686)

THREE LAWS OF MOTION AND ORBITS OF COMETS (1687, 1705)

The first scientifically grounded forecast appeared in the Times (London) on August 1, 1861, predicting a temperature in London of 62°F, clear skies, and a southwesterly wind. The forecast proved to be accurate—the temperature peaked at 61°F that day—and before long, weather forecasts became a staple of most newspapers, even if they were rarely as accurate as FitzRoy's initial prediction.

Part of that magic is economic: emergent platforms can dramatically reduce the costs of creation.

Artificial reefs create significant breeding grounds for a diverse group of fish; the Delaware reefs have seen a 400 percent increase in biomass since the first cars were sunk. (Artificial reefs also have the secondary effect of preventing beach erosion.) No longer needed for mass transportation, the abandoned subway cars have taken on a new occupation in their retirement years. They are now ecosystem engineers.

The Web is not simply an ecosystem; it is a specific type of ecosystem. It started as a desert, and it has been steadily transforming into a coral reef.

When Guier, Weiffenbach, and McClure were designing their system to help American submarines launch Polaris missiles against the Soviet Union, it never occurred to them that someday someone would use their platform to rave about a bowl of potato and leek soup to nearby strangers. Stacked platforms are like that: you think you're fighting the Cold War, and it turns out you're actually helping people figure out where to have lunch.

In the contemporary rendition, it's not that the slave technology grows stronger than us and learns to disobey our commands—it's that we deteriorate to the level of the machines. Smart technology makes us dumber.

Los innovadores legendarios, como Franklin, Snow y Darwin, poseen unas cualidades intelectuales comunes –cierta rapidez mental y una curiosidad sin límites–, pero también comparten otra característica: tienen un montón de aficiones.

Edison invented the lightbulb the way Steve Jobs invented the MP3 player: he wasn't the first, but he was the first to make something that took off in the marketplace.

Amazingly, life went on largely undisturbed as Chesbrough's team raised the city's buildings. One British visitor observed a 750-ton hotel being lifted, and described the surreal experience in a letter: "The people were in [the hotel] all the time coming and going, eating and sleeping—the whole business of the hotel proceeding without interruption

What I'm saying is individuals have better ideas if they're connected to rich, diverse networks of other individuals. If you put yourself in an environment with lots of different perspectives, you yourself are going to have better, sharper, more original ideas. It's not that the network is smart.

I love those stretches where I've just been a writer - when I haven't been doing Internet start-ups - where I pretty much eliminate meetings from my life.

Chance favors the connected mind.