How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World

by Steven Johnson

If there is a common thread to the time travelers, beyond the nonexplanation of genius, it is this: they worked at the margins of their official fields, or at the intersection point between very different disciplines.

One of the reasons garages have become such an emblem of the innovator’s workspace is precisely because they exist outside the traditional spaces of work or research.

If there’s anything we know from the history of innovation—and particularly from the history of the time travelers—it is that being true to yourself is not enough.