Good ideas

Stepping into a field for the first time, there can be a strong urge to fit in, to conform, to not look like an imposter. While it is important to learn how the tribe operates it is equally important to realise that many breakthrough ideas that you might call innovative come from being a little less attached to the tribe.

There are a number of papers and books that attempt to map this phenomenon. One of the best is Steven Johnson's, Where Good Ideas Come From1. He gave a talk in the Google seminar series in 2010. It is worth a look.

A very brief synopsis of his ideas are mapped in here and couched in terms of suggestions for you. His book is full of illustrative stories that make the points much better than the abstracted version in here. He has seven inter-related ideas:

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