....External information networks (the coffeehouse, the Internet) are so crucial to the process of innovaton, because those networks so often supply new connections that the solo inventor wouldn't have stumbled across on his or her own. But the long life span of the hunch suggests another crucial dimension here: it is not just the inventor's social network that matters, but the specific way in which the inventor networks with his own past selves, his or her ability to keep old ideas and associations alive in the mind. If great ideas usually arrive in fragments, a partial cluster of neurons, then part of the secret to having great ideas lies in creating a working environment where those fragments are nurtured and sustained over time.
The Invention of Air, Steven Johnson
I'm reading Steven Johnson's book about Joseph Priestley , one of the discovers of oxygen. I think Johnson's idea here about ideas is fascinating. I'm trying to think how this idea about ideas plays out in my own life. I swear I get a few great ideas everyday....but how many do I ever even think about in a month's time? I see how this really could relate to art and trying to be an artist. I have so many great ideas for photography....but I am not good about writing them down and coming back to them when the time is right. Johnson writes that Priestley was constantly writing everything down his whole entire life, which really contributed to his inventiveness.
