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More personal narrative throughout than I remember in his other books

Conclusion is almost a self-help styled summary more than a powerful logical supposition. A little disappointing since other people have already put forth the thrust of his seven qualities of innovation, but a reasonable expectation for a journalistic author like Johnson. Still, would have been nice for him to claim something difficult to accept, if only to answer Where Good Ideas Come From with a more concise point.

Shares elements with the other "histories" I've read recently, notably Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" and Kevin Kelly's tech history in "What Technology Wants"

Serendipity chapter advocates "reading holidays", a concentrated exposure to many different ideas such as in reading books in bunches at a time, to cultivate serendipitous creative discovery. Hard not to like that idea since it helps justify what I've been doing all year!

Reminding me of similar books in pop psychology like Blink (Gladwell) and How We Decide (Lehrer)

Audiobook version

Few authors can string together trivia so artfully to weave it into a history. Bryson makes me think "hm, that's interesting" no matter the topic.

For BBC Radio dramatized version

Kelly likes this contradicting-without-contradicting dualism. Philosophical progression is a bit shaky, but we'll just say his past-to-future transition chapters weren't my favorite.

The way he defines The Technium makes me suspect this book is secretly a commentary on the meaning of life.

Cross references a lot of other modern psychologists' work. Refutes some of Jonathan Haidt's moral relativism (a lá The Happiness Hypothesis) in Chapter 2 - Good and Evil

Introduction is a little callous to some of the philosophy underpinning a discussion of values (particularly his willingness to be completely baffled by others' belief), but at least he makes his assumptions clear. I expect to agree with Harris overall, but playing devil's advocate, he admits that negative individual episodes (e.g. depression) can yield a better end, yet dismisses any societal equivalent.