“This is how great intellectual breakthroughs usually happen in practice. It is rarely the isolated genius having a eureka moment alone in the lab. Nor is it merely a question of building on precedent, of standing on the shoulders of giants, in Newton's famous phrase. Great breakthroughs are closer to what happens in a flood plain: a dozen separate tributaries converge, and the rising waters lift the genius high enough that he or she can see around the conceptual obstructions of the age.” EnoughMomentsHappensAgeWaterPracticeBuildingGeniusIntellectualStandingShouldersLiftsPhrasesGiantsRisingDozenIsolatedFloodBreakthroughNewtonLabsPrecedentObstruction Book:The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World Source: The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
“Legendary innovators like Franklin, Snow, and Darwin all possess some common intellectual qualities—a certain quickness of mind, unbounded curiosity—but they also share one other defining attribute. They have a lot of hobbies.” MindCertainCommonQualityShareIntellectualCuriositySnowAttributesHobbiesDefiningFranklinInnovatorsLegendaryQuickness Book:Where Good Ideas Come From Source: Where Good Ideas Come From
“Popular culture, on average, has been growing more cognitively challenging over the past thirty years, not less. Despite everything you hear about declining standards and dumbing-down, you have to do more intellectual work to make sense of today's television or games - much less the internet - than you did a few decades ago.” YearsHas BeensTodayPastCultureGamesChallengesGrowingTelevisionInternetIntellectualStandardsAverageDecadesDespiteMake SenseThirtyThirty YearsOver The PastPopular CultureDumbing Down Author:Steven Johnson
