The Medici Effect : by Frans Johansson

        “The place, where the different fields meet, is what is called the Intersection. And the explosion of remarkable innovations that you find there is what is called the Medici Effect. This book is about how to create it. … The idea behind this book is simple: When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas.” “The Intersection is certainly not the only place to uncover new ideas, but it is the best place to generate and realize extraordinary ones.”

PART 1 – THE INTERSECTION

CHAPTER ONE: The Intersection — Your Best Chance to Innovate

“The mind-reading experiment (where a monkey moves a cursor on the screen with his mind) was creative because it was new and valuable, and it was innovative because the creative idea had become realized.” “…creativity really occurs when people act in concert with the surrounding environment, and within society. Ultimately society decides whether an idea is both new and valuable.” 

There is no way to know whether a thought is new except with reference to some standards, and there is no way to tell whether it is valuable until it passes social evaluation.

“If you operate within a field, you primarily are able to combine concepts within that particular field, generating ideas that evolve along a particular direction — what is called directional ideas. When you step into the Intersection, you can combine concepts between multiple fields,… — what is called intersectional ideas. The difference … is significant.”

In summary, intersectional innovations share the following characteristics:

·         They are surprising and fascinating.

·         They take leaps in new directions.

·         They open up entirely new fields.

·         They provide a space for a person, team, or company to call its own.

·         They generate followers, which means the creators can become leaders.

·         They provide a source of directional innovation for years or decades to come.

·         They can affect the world in unprecedented ways.

CHAPTER TWO: The Rise of Intersections

“The centuries that followed [the Renaissance] saw a growing specialization of knowledge. Disciplines became more fragmented as we broke the world into smaller and more specialized pieces.” “There are three distinct forces behind the rise of intersections, and at this moment, perhaps for the first time, they are all working together.”

Force 1: The Movement of the People. Globalization,

Force 2: The Convergence of Science. Cross-disciplinary sciences and multi-authored papers.

Force 3: The Leap of Computation. Faster, better, etc.

“Because the effects of these three forces are so pervasive, your understanding of a field is likely to become intersected many times during your lifetime.”

CHAPTER THREE: Break Down the Barriers Between Fields

This chapter introduces the “associative barriers” which are automatic and subconscious which keep us from finding the Intersection, helps us to “unravel” the “chain of associations,” and encourages us in “divergent thinking.”

Example = A Swedish cook making awesome fusion food at a Manhattan restaurant.

CHAPTER FOUR: How to Make the Barriers Fall

Here’s what a few innovators did. They,

·         exposed themselves to a range of cultures

·         learned differently

·         reversed their assumptions

·         took on multiple perspectives

We must remember that “there is always another way to view things” which is “particularly true as one compares cultures across the world.” “Research also indicates that people who are fluent in multiple languages tend to exhibit greater creativity than others.” “The purpose is not necessarily to come up with a specific idea, but to shake your mind free from preconceived notions.”

CHAPTER FIVE: Randomly Combine Concepts

Research has shown that two main types of random combinations are involved in generating creative ideas. 1) “flash-in-the-sky serendipity” which usually happens when you are trying to solve a problem.  

2) “prepared-mind discoveries” happen when someone with a “prepared mind” encounters a phenomenon he or she had not set out to find.

CHAPTER SIX: How to Find the Combinations

·         By diversifying occupations

·         By interacting with diverse groups of people

·         By going Intersection hunting

” A Renaissance man is someone that can see trends and patterns and integrate what he knows. To me the modern Renaissance man is curious, interested in different things. You have to be willing to ‘waste time’ on things that are not directly relevant to your work because you are curious. But then you are able to, sometimes unconsciously, integrate them back into your work.” Why are people so hesitant about working in diverse teams? Psychologists call this tendency “the similar-attraction effect,” the tendency to stick with people who are like themselves and avoid those who are different. “A sure path to inhibit your own creativity is to seek out environments where people are just like you.” So how do you bring diverse groups of people together? “For starters, it is important to depersonalize conflicts.” Go intersection hunting by “selecting items with no apparent connection,”  and “buy a couple magazines you usually do not read.”

CHAPTER SEVEN: Ignite an Explosion of Ideas

“The most successful innovators produce and realize an incredible number of ideas. The strongest correlation for quality of ideas is, in fact, quantity of ideas…it is typical to find that around 10 percent of the creators are responsible for 50 percent of all the contributions.” Why? “The intersection of fields, cultures, and disciplines generates combinations of different ideas, yes; but it also generates a massive number of those combinations. People at the Intersection, then, can pursue more ideas in search of the right ones.”

Dean Simonton says “innovators don’t produce because they are successful, but that they are successful because they produce. Quantity of ideas leads to quality of ideas.”

CHAPTER EIGHT: How to Capture the Explosion

·         Strike a balance between depth and breadth

·         Actively generate many ideas

·         Allow time for evaluation

“Too much expertise can fortify associative barriers…yet, expertise is clearly needed in order to develop new ideas to begin with.”

The buzz of a good brainstormer can infect a team with optimism and a sense of opportunity that can carry it through the darkest and most pressure-tinged stages of a project. – Tom Kelley 

1.      Produce as many ideas as possible

2.      Produce ideas as wild as possible

3.      Build upon each other’s ideas

4.      Avoid passing judgment on ideas

CHAPTER NINE: Execute Past Your Failures

“It turns out few kids like to think of themselves as ‘high risk.’ ” “For many students, it was inconceivable not to answer every insult with an escalation. Many students didn’t know that there were less risky ways to handle a confrontation.”

“Mistakes are inevitable if you want to succeed.” “Successful execution of intersectional ideas, then, does not come from planning for success, but planning for failure. It is a counterintuitive idea, but a critical one. Since we cannot rely on past experience to devise a perfect execution path, we must rely on learning what works and what doesn’t.”

CHAPTER TEN: How to Succeed in the Face of Failure

·         Try ideas that fail to find those that won’t

·         Reserve resources for trial and error

·         Remain motivated

“…the best results would come in an environment where success and failure are rewarded equally — and where inaction is punished.”

·         Make sure people are aware that failure to execute ideas is the greatest failure, and that it will be punished.

·         Make sure everyone learns from past failures; do not reward the same mistakes over and over again.

·         If people show low failure rates, be suspicious. Maybe they are not taking enough risks, or maybe they are hiding their mistakes, rather than allowing others in the organization to learn from them.

·         Hire people who have had intelligent failures and let others in the organization know that’s one reason they were hired.

“…just by saying that one activity is a reward for another activity can lead to a decrease in actual creative output.”

Money is great stuff to have, but when it comes to the act of creation, the best thing is not to think of money too much. It constipates the whole process.”

CHAPTER 11: Break Out of Your Network

‘swarm intelligence’ is a fascinating field filled with biologists, computer programmers, and others trying to find trends and answers by running programs that mimic the behavior of social insects.” The “value networks” “are needed to succeed within a field. That’s why we form them. And that is…where all the trouble starts.” “Although value networks are essential for directional innovation, they can prevent us from successfully pursuing intersectional innovation.” Example – group of ants finding the shortest way to food.

CHAPTER 12: How to Leave the Network Behind

·         Break the chain of dependence

·         Prepare for a fight

CHAPTER 13: Take Risks and Overcome Fear

The risk people tend to fear most is not financial loss or wasted time. Rather, it is the risk to their pride, status, and prestige, to what their peers will think of them if they fail. In other words, the risk of failure can weigh more heavily than what is at risk.”

CHAPTER 14: How to Adopt a Balanced View of Risk

·         Acknowledge risks and fears

Trap 1: If Things Are Going Well, We Stay Within a Field. “Prospect theory suggests that it is not so much that we hate uncertainty, but rather that we fear losing. It is not that easy to see how things in our life could instantly get better — but it is easy to see how they could quickly get far worse.” “The problem here is that if we take chances only when we have something to lose and play it safe when we have something to gain, we will be losing in the long run.” But It is comfortable and often very prudent to move forward in small, controlled steps, making sure to reap the gains we know we can get.” “The problem is that if we are willing to take risks and pursue intersections only when we are doing poorly, we’ll hurt our overall chances of success. This is the point when we tend to be short on resources, contacts, credibility, and time. This is when we have the lowest chance of executing past our failures. Instead, we should try to innovate, to take more chances, when things are going well.”

Courage is the resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. – Mark Twain 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Step into the Intersection…and Create the Medici Effect

Expect the unexpected. There is logic to the Intersection, but the logic is not obvious. “The unexpected nature of the Intersection makes it a place of uncertainty.”

So, Take the LEAP!!! :)

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NOTE : The name "Medici" comes from the Medici family, who were one of the first investors of this world living in Florence, Italy. They were ready to invest in any new and bright idea. So people from length and breadth of the planet flocked to the city to meet them which later resulted in the revolution named "Renaissance".