Where Good Ideas Come From Quotes

“LAW OF FALLING BODIES (1634)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“SLIDE RULE (1632)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“OCEAN TIDES (1632)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“VERNIER SCALE (1631)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“BLOOD CIRCULATION (1628)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“LOGARITHMS (1614)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“FLINTLOCK (1610)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“JUPITER’S MOONS (1610)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“ELLIPTICAL ORBITS (1605--1609)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“TELESCOPE (1600--1610)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“PLANETARY MAGNETISM (1600)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“FLUSH TOILET (1596)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“COMPOUND MICROSCOPE (1590)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“STOCKING FRAME (1589)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“SUPERNOVAS AND COMETS (1572—1577)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“MERCATOR MAP PROJECTION (1569)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“PENCIL (1560)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“STEAM TURBINE (1551)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“ETHER (1540)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“PULMONARY RESPIRATION (1535)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“CUBIC EQUATIONS AND COMPLEX NUMBERS (1530-1540)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“SQUARE ROOT AND PLUS AND MINUS SYMBOLS (1525)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“EARTH ROTATES AROUND SUN (1514)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“PORTABLE WATCHES (1500)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“TERRESTRIAL GLOBE (1492)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“PARACHUTE (1483)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“CONCAVE LENS (1451)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“PRINTING PRESS (1440)”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“If you come up with an interesting new contraption, you don’t need to persuade a government commission of its value. You just need to get someone to buy it.”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From

“Evolutionary biologists have a word for this kind of borrowing, first proposed in an influential 1971 essay by Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba: exaptation. An organism develops a trait optimized for a specific use, but then the trait gets hijacked for a completely different function.”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From