Steven Johnson

A fascinating deep dive on innovation from the New York Times bestselling author of How We Got To Now and FarsightedThe printing press, the pencil, the flush toilet, the battery--these are all great ideas. But where do they come from? What kind of environment breeds them? What sparks the flash of brilliance? How do we generate the breakthrough technologies that push forward our lives, our society, our culture? Steven Johnson's answers are revelatory as he identifies the seven key patterns behind genuine innovation, and traces them across time and disciplines. From Darwin and Freud to the halls of Google and Apple, Johnson investigates the innovation hubs throughout modern time and pulls out the approaches and commonalities that seem to appear at moments of originality.

The hardest choices are also the most consequential. So why do we know so little about how to get them right?Big, life-altering decisions matter so much more than the decisions we make every day, and they're also the most difficult: where to live, whom to marry, what to believe, whether to start a company, how to end a war. There's no one-size-fits-all approach for addressing these kinds of conundrums. Steven Johnson's classic Where Good Ideas Come From inspired creative people all over the world with new ways of thinking about innovation. In Farsighted, he uncovers powerful tools for honing the important skill of complex decision-making. While you can't model a once-in-a-lifetime choice, you can model the deliberative tactics of expert decision-makers. These experts aren't just the master strategists running major companies or negotiating high-level diplomacy. They're the novelists who draw out the complexity of their characters' inner lives, the city officials who secure long-term water supplies, and the scientists who reckon with future challenges most of us haven't even imagined. The smartest decision-makers don't go with their guts. Their success relies on having a future-oriented approach and the ability to consider all their options in a creative, productive way. Through compelling stories that reveal surprising insights, Johnson explains how we can most effectively approach the choices that can chart the course of a life, an organization, or a civilization. Farsighted will help you imagine your possible futures and appreciate the subtle intelligence of the choices that shaped our broader social history.

From the New York Times –bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From and Extra Life , a new look at the power and legacy of great ideas.In this illustrated history, Steven Johnson explores the history of innovation over centuries, tracing facets of modern life (refrigeration, clocks, and eyeglass lenses, to name a few) from their creation by hobbyists, amateurs, and entrepreneurs to their unintended historical consequences. Filled with surprising stories of accidental genius and brilliant mistakes—from the French publisher who invented the phonograph before Edison but forgot to include playback, to the Hollywood movie star who helped invent the technology behind Wi-Fi and Bluetooth—How We Got to Now investigates the secret history behind the everyday objects of contemporary life. In his trademark style, Johnson examines unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated fields: how the invention of air-conditioning enabled the largest migration of human beings in the history of the species—to cities such as Dubai or Phoenix, which would otherwise be virtually uninhabitable; how pendulum clocks helped trigger the industrial revolution; and how clean water made it possible to manufacture computer chips. Accompanied by a major six-part television series on PBS, How We Got to Now is the story of collaborative networks building the modern world, written in the provocative, informative, and engaging style that has earned Johnson fans around the globe.

From the New York Times bestselling author of How We Got To Now and FarsightedForget everything you’ve ever read about the age of dumbed-down, instant-gratification culture. In this provocative, unfailingly intelligent, thoroughly researched, and surprisingly convincing big idea book, Steven Johnson draws from fields as diverse as neuroscience, economics, and media theory to argue that the pop culture we soak in every day—from Lord of the Rings to Grand Theft Auto to The Simpsons —has been growing more sophisticated with each passing year, and, far from rotting our brains, is actually posing new cognitive challenges that are actually making our minds measurably sharper. After reading Everything Bad is Good for You , you will never regard the glow of the video game or television screen the same way again. With a new afterword by the author.

In this nationally bestselling, compulsively readable account of what makes brain science a vital component of people's quest to know themselves, acclaimed science writer Steven Johnson subjects his own brain to a battery of tests to find out what's really going on inside. He asks:

In the tradition of Being Digital and The Tipping Point, Steven Johnson, acclaimed as a "cultural critic with a poet's heart" (The Village Voice), takes readers on an eye-opening journey through emergence theory and its applications. Explaining why the whole is sometimes smarter than the sum of its parts, Johnson presents surprising examples of feedback, self-organization, and adaptive learning. How does a lively neighborhood evolve out of a disconnected group of shopkeepers, bartenders, and real estate developers? How does a media event take on a life of its own? How will new software programs create an intelligent World Wide Web? In the coming years, the power of self-organization -- coupled with the connective technology of the Internet -- will usher in a revolution every bit as significant as the introduction of electricity. Provocative and engaging, Emergence puts you on the front lines of this exciting upheaval in science and thought.

Drawing on his own expertise in the humanities and on the Web, Steven Johnson not only demonstrates how interfaces - those buttons, graphics, and words on the computer screen through which we control information - influence our daily lives, but also tracks their roots back to Victorian novels, early cinema, and even medieval urban planning. The result is a lush cultural and historical tableau in which today's interfaces take their rightful place in the lineage of artistic innovation. With a distinctively accessible style, Interface Culture brings new intellectual depth to the vital discussion of how technology has transformed society, and is sure to provoke wide debate in both literary and technological circles.

From the bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From, The Ghost Map and Everything Bad Is Good for You, a new national bestseller: the “exhilarating”( Los Angeles Times) story of Joseph Priestley, “a founding father long forgotten”(Newsweek) and a brilliant man who embodied the relationship between science, religion, and politics for America's Founding Fathers. In The Invention of Air, national bestselling author Steven Johnson tells the fascinating story of Joseph Priestley—scientist and theologian, protégé of Benjamin Franklin, friend of Thomas Jefferson—an eighteenth-century radical thinker who played pivotal roles in the invention of ecosystem science, the discovery of oxygen, the uses of oxygen, scientific experimentation, the founding of the Unitarian Church, and the intellectual development of the United States. As he did so masterfully in The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson uses a dramatic historical story to explore themes that have long engaged him: innovative strategies, intellectual models, and the way new ideas emerge and spread, and the environments that foster these breakthroughs.

The New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Map and How We Got to Now returns with the story of a pirate who changed the world Most confrontations, viewed from the wide angle of history, are minor disputes, sparks that quickly die out. But every now and then, someone strikes a match that lights up the whole planet. Henry Every was the seventeenth century's most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular--and wildly inaccurate--reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every's most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event--the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew--and its surprising repercussions across time and space. It's the gripping tale one of the most lucrative crimes in history, the first international manhunt, and the trial of the seventeenth century.Johnson uses the extraordinary story of Henry Every and his crimes to explore the emergence of the East India Company, the British Empire, and the modern global marketplace: a densely interconnected planet ruled by nations and corporations. How did this unlikely pirate and his notorious crime end up playing a key role in the birth of multinational capitalism? In the same mode as Johnson's classic non-fiction historical thriller The Ghost Map, Enemy of All Mankind deftly traces the path from a single struck match to a global conflagration.

From Steven Johnson, the dynamic thinker routinely compared to James Gleick, Dava Sobel, and Malcolm Gladwell, The Ghost Map is a riveting page-turner about a real-life historical hero, Dr. John Snow. It's the summer of 1854, and London is just emerging as one of the first modern cities in the world. But lacking the infrastructure—garbage removal, clean water, sewers—necessary to support its rapidly expanding population, the city has become the perfect breeding ground for a terrifying disease no one knows how to cure. As the cholera outbreak takes hold, a physician and a local curate are spurred to action—and ultimately solve the most pressing medical riddle of their time. In a triumph of multidisciplinary thinking, Johnson illuminates the intertwined histories and inter-connectedness of the spread of disease, contagion theory, the rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry, offering both a riveting history and a powerful explanation of how it has shaped the world we live in.

A riveting account of the anarchists who terrorized the streets of New York—and the detective duo who transformed policing to meet the threat—from the bestselling author of The Ghost MapWhen Arthur Woods took command of the NYPD in April of 1914, the institution was still largely the corrupt, low-tech organization of the Tammany Hall era. To the extent the police were stopping crime—as opposed to committing it—their role had been almost entirely defined by physical the brawn of the cop on the beat keeping criminals at bay with nightsticks and fists. The solving of crimes was largely outside their purview.Woods was determined to change that, but he couldn’t have anticipated the maelstrom of violence that would test his science-based approach to policing. Within weeks of his tenure, New York City was engulfed in the most concentrated terrorism campaign in the nation’s history, a five-year period of relentless bombings, many of them perpetrated by the anarchist movement led by the legendary radicals Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman.Steven Johnson’s engrossing account of the struggle between the anarchist movement and the emerging surveillance state stretches around the world and back to the nineteenth century—to Alfred Nobel’s invention of dynamite, to the development of forensic science in France, and to the assassination of Czar Alexander II, an event that propelled Berkman and Goldman’s emigration from Russia to America and inspired their conviction that the nation state must be destroyed. As the forces of anarchy and policing clash in New York City, we meet Inspector Joseph Faurot, a science-first detective who works closely with Woods in reforming the police force; Hans Schmidt, the psychotic killer priest whose capture turns Faurot into a household name; and Amadeo Polignani, the young Italian undercover detective who infiltrates the notorious Bresci Circle.Johnson reveals a mostly forgotten period of political conviction, scientific discovery, assassination plots, bombings, undercover operations, and innovative sleuthing. The Infernal Machine is the complex pre-history of our current moment, when decentralized anarchist networks have once again taken to the streets to protest law enforcement abuses, right-wing militia groups have attacked government buildings, and surveillance is almost ubiquitous.

As a species we have doubled our life expectancy in just one hundred years. All the advances of modern life--the medical breakthroughs, the public health institutions, the rising standards of living--have given us each about twenty thousand extra days on average. There are few measures of human progress more astonishing than our increased longevity.This book is Steven Johnson's attempt to understand where that progress came from. How many of those extra twenty thousand days came from vaccines, or the decrease in famines, or seatbelts? What are the forces that now keep us alive longer? Behind each breakthrough lies an inspiring story of cooperative innovation, of brilliant thinkers bolstered by strong systems of public support and collaborative networks.But it is not enough simply to remind ourselves that progress is possible. How do we avoid decreases in life expectancy as our public health systems face unprecedented challenges? What current technologies or interventions that could reduce the impact of future crises are we somehow ignoring?

"A house of wonders itself. . . . Wonderland inspires grins and well-what-d'ya-knows" —The New York Times Book Review From the New York Times-bestselling author of How We Got to Now and Where Good Ideas Come From, a look at the world-changing innovations we made while keeping ourselves entertained. This lushly illustrated history of popular entertainment takes a long-zoom approach, contending that the pursuit of novelty and wonder is a powerful driver of world-shaping technological change. Steven Johnson argues that, throughout history, the cutting edge of innovation lies wherever people are working the hardest to keep themselves and others amused.Johnson's storytelling is just as delightful as the inventions he describes, full of surprising stops along the journey from simple concepts to complex modern systems. He introduces us to the colorful innovators of leisure: the explorers, proprietors, showmen, and artists who changed the trajectory of history with their luxurious wares, exotic meals, taverns, gambling tables, and magic shows.In Wonderland, Johnson compellingly argues that observers of technological and social trends should be looking for clues in novel amusements. You'll find the future wherever people are having the most fun.

From the New York Times bestselling author of How We Got To Now and FarsightedCombining the deft social analysis of Where Good Ideas Come From with the optimistic arguments of Everything Bad Is Good for You , bestselling author and one of the most inspiring visionaries of contemporary culture, Steven Johnson, maps the ways a connected world will be both different and better. Steven Johnson proposes that a new model of political change is on the rise transforming everything from local government to classrooms to health care. It’s a compelling new political worldview that breaks with traditional categories of liberal or conservative thinking. Johnson explores this innovative vision through a series of fascinating from the “Miracle on the Hudson” to the planning of the French railway system; from the battle against malnutrition in Vietnam to a mysterious outbreak of strange smells in downtown Manhattan; from underground music video artists to the invention of the Internet itself. At a time when the conventional wisdom holds that the political system is hopelessly gridlocked with old ideas, Future Perfect makes the timely and uplifting case that progress is still possible.

Did you drink a glass of water today? Did you turn on a light? Did you think about how miraculous either one of those things is when you did it? Of course not--but you should, and New York Times bestselling author Steven Johnson has. This adaptation of his adult book and popular PBS series explores the fascinating and interconnected stories of innovations--like clean drinking water and electricity--that changed the way people live.Innovation starts with a problem whose solution sets in motion all kinds of unexpected discoveries. That's why you can draw a line from pendulums to punching the clock at a factory, from ice blocks to summer movie blockbusters, from clean water to computer chips.In the lively storytelling style that has made him a popular, bestselling author, Steven Johnson looks at how accidental genius, brilliant mistakes, and unintended consequences shape the way we live in the modern world. Johnson's "long zoom" approach connects history, geography, politics, and scientific advances with the deep curiousity of inventors or quirky interests of tinkerers to show how innovation truly comes about.His fascinating account is organized into six topics: glass, cold, sound, clean, time, light. Johnson's fresh exploration of these simple, single-syllable word concepts creates an endlessly absorbing story that moves from lightning strikes in the prehistoric desert to the herculean effort to literally raise up the city of Chicago to laser labs straight out of a sci-fi movie.In other words, it's the story of how we got to now!

From bestselling author and Internet pioneer Steven Johnson, an essential book for anyone interested in the key texts on the topic from a wide range of fields as well as interviews with successful, real-world innovators, prefaced with an original essay from Johnson that draws upon his own experiences as an entrepreneur and author. In The Innovator's Cookbook , Johnson compiles the best and most influential foundational texts and essays from field leaders including Stewart Brand, Clayton Christensen, Richard Florida, Teresa Amabile, Peter Drucker, Amar Bhide, and many more. New conversations on innovation from Ray Ozzie (former chief software architect at Microsoft), Beth Noveck, Jon Schnur, Katie Salen, Tom Kelley, and Brian Eno are included. Innovation is today’s buzzword for a reason. The need to push forward, find new paths and new ideas in an ever-evolving world, is a vital part of business, of education, of politics, of our daily lives. Building on the success of Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From -- one of the most acclaimed business books of 2010 -- The Innovator's Cookbook makes a major new contribution to this vital conversation.

"The ubiquity of the digital lifestyle has forced us to write and think about technology in a different way."--Steven Johnson In his Introduction to this beautifully curated collection of essays, Steven Johnson heralds the arrival of a n

You know the pro wrestler who holds the sport's record for most patents? No? Well, maybe you know the true origins of rock-and-roll and wrestling. No? Well, maybe you know about the convicted felon whose antics forced construction of the famed ramp at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. These and other precious nuggets are part of The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: Classic Characters, another volume by award-winning journalist Steven Johnson with respected author and editor Greg Oliver. Classic Characters delves into Rip Hawk's first experience at a burlesque house, how Jack Adkisson became Fritz Von Erich and the wrestling warriors who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Mixing updated pieces from SLAM! Wrestling with fresh research, Classic Characters is a ride a minute into the strange yet beloved world of pro wrestling.

A tremendous amount of new and uncommon information is contained inside The Deep Web and Darknet that could assist us with advancing different fields, and in this way interfaces with the opposite side of data. It permits us to acquire and utilize the capacity to be completely free and autonomous in our own perspectives with no oversight. At long last, The Deep Web and Darknet have once in a while become the method of appropriation for some unlawful products and exercises, alongside being controlled now and again by hackers and those of ill will, so when one gets to and utilizes the Deep Web and The Darknet, they ought to be cautious and make safe choices.

Start Attracting The Life That You Keep Imagining Are you searching for happiness in life?Do you want to change your life so that you can live according to the values you have?This book will help you find that place!Every single one of us is seeking something in life. It may be happiness, wealth, a relationship, or a career, but it is a universal concept and although we all look for it in different places and achieve it in different ways, it remains a constant in most of us. Humans have developed many ways to focus the mind using the Law of Attraction so that we can control it to our benefit.Inside this book, Reaching Beyond Stepping Into The Heavenly Realm, you will find answers to the power of the unconscious mind and how you can attract what you want, through chapters that Why the unconscious mind is so powerful Understanding how the mind works The Law of Attraction Channeling thoughts into prayer and meditation Releasing pent up negative energy The power of forgiveness Accepting the world around you And much more…Our unconscious minds hold a vast well of potential and if you want to succeed in life that potential must be released. With it, you will be able to achieve whatever you desire but acting fast is essential. If you have dreams and desires that have been unfulfilled don’t waste any more time!Scroll up now to get your copy of Reaching Beyond Psychology and start achieving your goals today!

Priced at only $3.99. Read on your PC, Mac, smart phone, tablet or Kindle device.This book contains proven steps and strategies on how to use hypnosis to help improve your mental capacity. Also contained in this book are additional background information regarding hypnosis, like what it can and cannot do. Here you will learn the differences between the kind of hypnotism that you see in the movies and television shows, from the actual ones who practice their craft in real life.If you want to give hypnosis a try, by either being the subject or you want to try using it on other people, then this book will give you some valuable tips on how to do it.Download your copy today!

The Ranu Chronicles takes place in Iredel. A world ran by different races and technology levels. The main race featured in this book are called Ranu. Ranu are lycan that were chosen by Gaia to perform the impossible. They were granted the might of the divine and now protect Gaia at all costs even at there own lives. This story starts with a young Ranu realizes his destiny and walk that long road to glory.The destiny of Carter Riftwatcher has been written in the loom of fate for Melania by the four maidens themselves. It became necessary in the chaos wars when they imprisoned Hades, Loki and Lilith beneath the earth that they would need a protector to keep them at bay. So they chose Carter. Now Hades is on the verge of escaping and hes still very young. A story of love, Hate, War, Drama, Suspence, Horror and above all epic!

This book is a well-written and exciting autobiography of Henry Edward Tautari Johnson describing the days of gum digging and whaling; of kauri logging and river rafting in 1800's New Zealand. It is of a time when hardy working men depended on a horse and dray and a team of bullocks for their way of life. He lived during a difficult period of New Zealand's history where his opportunist ability aided his survival in rough situations. Harry Johnson, as he came to be known, was a world traveler during a time when it was not popular. He records his experiences of his boyhood on a training ship to his voyage to Ceylon in pirate infested waters; until he becomes a captain of his own ship. He records his years as a soldier in Egypt, his visit to the Holy land and Europe. A great read for those who enjoy humor, pathos, and excitement.

This book contains proven steps and strategies on how to overcome caffeine addiction. Besides nicotine and alcohol, caffeine is the third most popular addictive drug in the world. Do you need your morning coffee to start your day? Do you develop instant headaches and bad mood when you miss your coffee? Then just like millions of people you are also suffering from caffeine addiction problem. People drink coffee for a variety of they like the taste, because they do a stressful job, or they are depressed and drinking coffee or caffeine-rich drinks are the only relief they got. But over time, drinking too much coffee and caffeinated drinks and snacks have its own problems like an abnormal heartbeat, anxiety, insomnia, and other diseases such as heart attack and strokes.

It's been a century since the world broke all we knew was shattered. Magic awoke and the titans were released. Countless people were slaughtered, the continents shifted, the world as we knew it vanished. Nightmares became reality, races that were once only heard of in myths came to life right before our eyes, inexplicable creatures we call chimeras made much of the Earth uninhabitable. We were forced to evolve. We learned to wield the ancient energy source of mana which transformed the lives of many, we were then able to find shelter and begin to rebuild our world, but we didn't know of the hell that was to follow. A monster lurks within the shadows, observing and waiting for his moment to strike. Only a few know of his existence. The destroyer, Armageddon has awoken with his release, and now heroes and villains alike struggle to gather the fourteen blades of Omnirock, a weapon forged by the gods for thousands of years as a weakness to the two titans that shaped all of existence. Old leaders were resurrected to help gather forces to discover the fourteen blades and bring back power to the gods. Atlantis arose from its tomb to seek vengeance on those that destroyed its civilization. Visitors from other worlds now walk our planet, many because there’s was even more dangerous, others wish to aid the Destroyer in his deeds. Enjoy boundless customization possibilities and unique character designs where the only limit is your imagination, using a dynamic fluid system that is effortless to use. Countless possibilities for designing your own, spells, vehicles, items of power, races and a great deal more. Will you elect to save the omniverse? Or annihilate it? The fate of everything now lays in your hands.