Serendipity and Sex

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (2010) is a new book by Matt Ridley. Ridley is a British science fiction writer that has taken on the subject of innovation. He argues that our past achievements and advancements have come about because of innovation - - he thinks all our present and projected problems will be solved with innovation.

Innovation to Ridley is not a lonely or singular activity. Innovation is a collective phenomenon. We grow, improve and advance by what he calls cheekily, "ideas having sex." The key to innovation birthing is the sex part - - the mating of different concepts, thoughts, and ideas. Think the ideas of Apple's Steve Jobs mated with The Daily Beast's Tina Brown. New ideas of innovative thought regarding technology and journalism. Or the ideas of civil engineering mated with the ideas and applications of a computer scientist working with the iPhone. The combination of traffic patterns and information technology.

The sex part really starts with the meeting and dating phases. Serendipity plays a key role in the lead in to "ideas having sex." Serendipity occurs when you discover an invention or a person who has an idea or a thought that you might be interested in. You meet an idea that you want to have sex with. The Internet and social networking plays a role in the dating process. But brain workers like to live near each other. Silicon Valley is the classic example. It is easier to keep up with the latest ideas if you keep bumping into other people who work in your areas of interest. Idea dating and hooking up, because of the close proximity, becomes so much easier for your ideas to have sex with other peoples' ideas.

The next time you are in a conference room for a two-hour brainstorming session - - ask yourself if your ideas are compatible sexually with the other peoples' ideas. Are the ideas too related - - too many family members and relatives - - too many "cousins-marrying-cousins" - - too much inbreeding? It might be wise to always have a wide "dating and sex" experience in the idea marketplace.