The Myth of Water Cooler Innovation: Time to Reinvent Work A September 2021 New York Times article, When Chance Encounters at the Water Cooler Are Most Useful, documents the myth of the water cooler conversation as a driver of innovation. What is true about water cooler conversations is that they help establish new relationships or reinforce existing ones. These … [Read more...] about The Myth of Water Cooler Innovation: Time to Reinvent Work
Serendipity Economy
Serendipity and Milton’s First Folio: Discovering Milton’s Annotated Copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio
Serendipity and Milton's First Folio The First Folio of Shakespeare's work ranks among the rarest of books. Only about 230 copies survive. One copy of the Folios donated to the Free Library of Philadelphia included long ignored marginalia. It turns out that serendipity had a role to play in rediscovering Milton's First Folio copy hundreds of years after the author's death. By … [Read more...] about Serendipity and Milton’s First Folio: Discovering Milton’s Annotated Copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio
Why Micah Zenko’s “Red Team” Lives in The Serendipity Economy
I was listening to a Hear & Now interview with Micah Zenko, author of Red Team: How to Succeed By Thinking Like the Enemy. It struck me that many of the issues related to terrorism and cyber-attacks stem from the propensity of those working in the management of intelligence systems. Managing systems that require security do so under industrial age economic models … [Read more...] about Why Micah Zenko’s “Red Team” Lives in The Serendipity Economy
The NSA Spying Program Value Fits the Serendipity Economy Model
I was listening to Warren Olney's To the Point on the radio today as they discussed the NSA spying program PRISM (listen here: NSA Spying Program Puts Secretive Court in the Spotlight). One of the questions fit into The Serendipity Economy framework.: How does the government determine the value of the program? No one could offer a valid proof of value. Why? -- Because the … [Read more...] about The NSA Spying Program Value Fits the Serendipity Economy Model
Desperately Seeking A New Natural Satellite or Renew the Space Race and Find Our Adventurer’s Soul
As I write this, I am sitting in Washington D.C. The airwaves and the newspapers are filled with talk of sequestration, with the debate over frugality and investment. In all of this drab procedural inflection we lose the spirit of leading that should be emanating  from this city. I've already documented that when the government invests time in thinking big thoughts, we become … [Read more...] about Desperately Seeking A New Natural Satellite or Renew the Space Race and Find Our Adventurer’s Soul
