The history of cultural progress is, almost without exception, a story of one door leading to another door, exploring the palace one room at a time.
This quote comes from Stephen Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From and Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter, in the Guardian article Eureka moments are very, very rare.
It reminds me of Thomas S Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Coming off the back of my post the other day about a-ha moments that occur in the shower, this article supports the idea that good ideas are less often a stroke of genius, and more often the logical next step in a cumulative history of progress.
I’m continually fascinated by this idea of where ideas come from, and how we can make ourselves more likely to come across ideas.
The First Place is your home, and the Second Place is your office. You have assigned roles and tasks at each place, and you know nearly all the people in each. The Third Place is where you meet with people you don’t know that well, or maybe at all, and you exchange ideas, learn about other people, and enrich society and yourself.
A great article from Kevin Purdy on Fast Company (Why In-Person Socializing Is A Mandatory To-Do Item) that delves into the very sound reasons that you need to get out more and meet people face-to-face.
In 2012 I am formalising this time on a weekly basis a little more. I already have a couple of Third Spaces (Awesome Foundation Sydney, Vibewire fastBreak) but I will also be looking to make a small portion of this blog dedicated to in-person catch-ups.
Do you have a Third Space? Where is it and how do you use it?
It takes between a week and 12 days to build up a tolerance and dependency on caffeine (even at just one cup a day), and an average of 10 days to work it off. Once you’re past the rough mornings and headaches, you’re able to strategically deploy the stuff when you’ve got a big day ahead and need better attention and memory performance.
Sunday Surplus | 25th December, 2011
- Burnt, by Lovers Town
- Superheroine Breast Cancer Awareness ads
- Christmas is just around the corner, anti drink-driving ads
- Branding and how it works in the social media age infographic
- Facebook ruling gives media enquiry purpose
- Democracy needs ignorant people, says science
- A murder foretold: unravelling the ultimate political conspiracy
- Tiny $25 computer is designed to teach programming to kids
- Scott Weaver’s Rolling through the Bay
- Can games really increase the intelligence of children?
- The end of business
- James Burke’s Connections: A BBC History of Innovation
