“A brain is a society of very small, simple modules that cannot be said to be thinking, that are not smart in themselves.  But when you have a network of them together, out of that arises a kind of smartness.” -Kevin Kelly

Where do your best ideas come from? Probably not where you think.

In this TED Talk, author Steven Johnson talks about the environments where unusually high levels of creativity are able to flourish. His two key hypothesis are:

1) “An idea is a network on the most elemental level.” In other words, ideas don’t come from a single source — they’re the result of multiple stimuli. Whether you’re collaborating with a group of coworkers or make travel a big part of your life, the stimuli coming from these situations increase the potential for creativity.

Drawing comparisons between the taverns of a few hundred years ago and the coffee shops of today, we can see that these places (and the open floor plan at Casanova) foster a more consistent level of creativity; what Johnson calls a “liquid network.”

2) Ideas also tend to be the result of a “slow hunch” — a prolonged incubation period where ideas tend to marinate until we’re fully able to grasp them. What we may interpret as an “epiphany” is really just the end result of constantly molding different sources of inspiration over time. In Darwin’s case, he thought he just came up with his theory of natural selection on a whim, but we know by looking at his notes that he had already formulated his theory way before he “discovered” it — he just hadn’t realized it yet.

Johnson makes a compelling argument on both points and the increased hyper connectivity we’re experiencing on the web has been fertile ground for cross-pollination of ideas (the proliferation of crowdsourcing comes to mind).

Watch the whole video here:

What do you think is the most conducive creative environment?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

Further reading:

Where Great Ideas Come From on Influx Insights

Where Good Ideas Come From on Only Dead Fish

Buy the book on Amazon

Dennis Demori is a Strategic Planner at Casanova Pendrill interested in Entrepreneurship, Digital and Japanese culture. You can find him spreading ideas on Twitter as @DennisDemori.