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title: Where innovation and creativity come from?
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# Where innovation and creativity come from?

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Some very good sources of information for the study of human innovation, helping to build a comprehensive understanding of the first nature of "innovation" and "creativity".

It is worthwhile to understand the question "What is innovation anyway? Why are some people more likely to generate ideas? How do the major discoveries in history come about?" For those who are curious about such questions.

For the record, keep updated.

### Geoffrey West's "Super Organic City Theory"

Kleiber's Law suggests that there is a very clear mathematical relationship between biological lifespan and biological weight, summarizing that, on average, the heavier a creature is, the longer it will live.

Geoffrey collected a lot of data to study whether this law applies to human cities, and he found that the larger the city (transportation network, etc.), the more creative the city (patents, inventions, etc.), and that there is not a simple linear relationship.

If a city is 50 times larger than another city, then that city is not simply 50 times more innovative, but 130 times more innovative, and the innovation coefficient increases incrementally with the size of the city (the strongest is stronger effect).

### "Adjacent possible" proposed by Professor Stuart Kauffman

When Kauffman studied the origin of life on Earth, he suggested that at the beginning of life formation, various chemical elements already existed on Earth, and then a large number of collisions and combinations occurred over a long period of time, and new chemical combinations were formed by the connection between old chemical elements, and then complex life was born slowly.

On this subject "The Origin of Complex Life" is also a very worthwhile book to read.

Without the connections between the basic elements, no new chemical assemblies would have been created, and life is formed by the splicing of various chemical assemblies (thanks to the chaotic environment that created life).

The same is true for innovation. If there were no old components of past inventions, there would be no new connections for later generations to try, resulting in new inventions.

### The multiple phenomenon and the paper "Are inventions inevitable" published in the 1920s

Are inventions inevitable studied a large sample of this phenomenon and found that innovation always has some "common and wonderful" basis.

Innovation is like opening a door, we may not immediately reach our goal, but we will find more doors, gain more information, and increase the likelihood of reaching our goal.

### Some theories related to neurons and the human brain

In the 1990s, Fred Gage and Peter Eriksson (Swedish scientists) discovered that the human brain is so plastic that some neurons regenerate and form new connections throughout our lifetime, a process known as neurogenesis.

Even earlier, in 1972, a classic paper called "Brain changes in response to experience" showed that the neurons and synapses of rats living in a rich environment were more than 50% larger (I averaged) than those in a poor environment.

Subsequent studies have also found that people who live in rich environments (new environments, new stimuli) are more neurologically active and learn new skills faster.

This shows that putting oneself in a new environment, not doing overly repetitive work, and getting new stimuli is important for innovation.

### Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi proposed the flow of mind (flow)

### Darwin's discovery of the theory of evolution and Tim Lee's invention of the World Wide Web in its entirety

Both of them continued for decades, leaving a large number of written descriptions in different people's perspectives. Studying them helps to restore the most realistic environment of the time and avoid getting into the subjective single narrative of any one person.

### The entire process of Satoshi Nakamoto's invention of Bitcoin and Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press

The process of these two inventions is extremely similar in that Satoshi Nakamoto did not invent any new technology, but rather created bitcoin through a combination of existing technologies.

The process of their inventions is very similar, as Satoshi Nakamoto did not invent any new technology, but rather created bitcoin through a combination of existing technologies.

Gutenberg's experience is even more legendary. He was an entrepreneur selling mirrors to pilgrims, but because of the bubonic plague, the market demand for pilgrims shrank dramatically and his business could not continue.

Gutenberg then turned to wine making and discovered that the "screw press technology" that played a major role in winemaking could be used in the field of printing, combining his previous exposure to movable type printing, ink, and old printing technology to innovate and invent the printing press. Gutenberg did not invent any new technology.

Gutenberg's printing press reduced the cost of spreading new ideas (before the Bible was copied word for word by the church, the censorship mechanism was extremely strict, and it was very difficult for individuals to publish books), and Gutenberg invariably contributed to the revolution that eventually led to the collapse of the church.

Satoshi's application of cryptography to money also greatly enhanced the sovereignty of the individual.

Imagine how I could obtain a private key through violence, unless I sent the army to your house and put a gun to your head? Isn't it as easy as freezing your account with a click of the mouse anymore? The cost of violence is rising rapidly, the logic of monopolizing wealth through violence is changing, and perhaps the next revolution on the same level as the printing press is happening.