{"id":52924,"date":"2021-11-06T11:06:44","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T15:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=52924"},"modified":"2021-11-10T11:02:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T15:02:15","slug":"how-innovation-happens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-innovation-happens\/","title":{"rendered":"David Epstein: How Innovations Happen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What drives innovation? How does efficiency prevent people from generating innovative ideas? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his book Range, <\/em>David Epstein explains that trying to work efficiently and seriously\u2014as many scientists and innovators do\u2014will actually make it more difficult to innovate. When you let go of expectations and the fear of failure<\/a> and experiment for the joy of experimenting, that’s when many breakthroughs tend to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how innovation happens, according to David Epstein. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How Playful Curiosity Yields New Ideas<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How do innovations happen? One way generalists come up with creative ideas is by deliberately cultivating a sense of playful thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epstein argues that when professionals loosen up and temporarily abandon the need to accomplish anything serious, they often make wild breakthroughs that would never have normally been discovered. By freeing themselves from the constraints of serious work, they\u2019re more likely to explore uncharted territory with unexpected value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because generalists largely only pursue things they\u2019re excited about, through short-term planning and fearless pivoting, it\u2019s easier for them to produce work for the intrinsic joy of exploration. Obviously, you need rules and direction to get most work done, but a healthy amount of playful thinking and curiosity can be surprisingly valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Epstein recounts how Nobel-winning physicist Andre Geim schedules \u201cFriday night experiments\u201d\u2014time dedicated to fooling around in the lab with whatever interests him, regardless if he thinks it\u2019ll amount to anything. One Friday night, he unexpectedly discovered that the water in a frog\u2019s body was magnetic enough to levitate a frog in midair. On another, he found out that Scotch tape was able to strip off extremely thin layers of graphite, directly leading him to discover how to isolate graphene, a nanomaterial that\u2019s one atom thick and two hundred times stronger than steel\u2014which won him the Nobel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power of Detachment<\/strong>

The defining characteristic of Geim\u2019s Friday Night Experiments is detachment from outcomes\u2014full acceptance of the possibility of failure and waste. In fact, this detachment is precisely what makes them so successful.

Detachment from the outcomes of your actions at first sounds just like giving up. However, it can be a powerful tool to achieve your goals, as well as an invaluable blessing for your mental health<\/a>. Detaching from the outcome doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you don\u2019t care about the outcome. Instead, you\u2019re simply becoming less hostile toward unfavorable outcomes. This mental shift provides a number of pragmatic benefits.

Being less desperate for a specific outcome gives you more power in negotiations<\/a> and makes you appear more competent. It keeps you oriented toward future opportunities instead of tunnel-visioning into whatever is in front of you. It preserves your emotional energy<\/a> for the tasks that really matter. Attaching yourself to a single outcome blinds you to everything else in the world, and in creative fields, this makes your job infinitely more difficult.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Efficiency-obsessed specialists would see Geim\u2019s Friday night experiments as a waste of time, but they\u2019re another example of why efficiency shouldn\u2019t be your highest priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epstein mourns that today\u2019s science is far too concerned with efficiency. Research grants are more likely to be doled out if the research can prove that it\u2019s worth the resources, but only funding research that looks promising is the quickest way to stifle new discoveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epstein cites the example of HIV\u2014before the AIDS epidemic, scientists believed that retroviruses were an insignificant phenomenon found only in animals. Curious scientists studied them anyway, amassing a body of knowledge that led to the speedy development of treatment for AIDS. Curiosity for its own sake needs to be preserved for science to operate effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roll the Dice on Research Funding<\/strong>

Epstein isn\u2019t the only one criticizing today\u2019s efficiency-obsessed system of funding research. Multiple studies have shown that grant reviewers are extremely subjective, unreliable judges of potential research. On top of this, they\u2019re biased toward research that appears<\/em> promising instead of what\u2019s actually <\/em>promising. One researcher claims that this funding structure \u201cis turning scientists into entrepreneurs and managers\u201d as they compete based on appearances. The desire to bring back curiosity-driven research without pre-ordained outcomes has inspired some creative suggestions for reform.

The idea to have random chance decide what research gets funded<\/a> was first suggested in 2016 by microbiologist Arturo Casadevall and his team, whom we introduced back in Part 1 of this guide. The proposal is to allow reviewers to reject any research that seems entirely worthless and enter the rest into a lottery in which randomly selected research is funded. Theoretically, this would allow unpredictably valuable research, like the retroviruses that helped doctors treat HIV, to once again become possible.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Exercise: Brainstorm Analogies to Solve Your Problems<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Deliberately brainstorming<\/a> a wide range of analogies is a proven strategy to reframe your problems and make them easier to solve. Try it for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n