This week I was particularly intrigued by Steven Johnson’s summary of his book about where ideas come from. I found it particularly interesting that he destroys the myth of the epiphany with regards to innovation, instead referring to the public sphere as a tool for ideation through leveraging social capital. This social and network capital births ideas much more freely as a result of two or more long-time “hunches” meeting and intertwining.

This exact process provides the words I could never express to explain why I enjoy collaboration so much. I am full of half-ideas, especially with regards to music, but also within more “academic” and other creative fields and I much prefer riffing on the skills and ideas I don’t normally have access to than simply reaching around for ideas in my limited brain.

I would love to write more on this, and plan to soon, but it’s midnight after a long weekend running around the frozen tundra that is currently New York and I have a 7 AM plane to catch back to school in the morning, so the rest will have to wait..