We Need To Play Each

When You Don't Have To Ask For Permission Innovation Thrives.

As Much As We Sometimes Roll Our Eyes At The Ivory-tower Isolation Of Universities, They Continue To Serve As Remarkable Engines Of Innovation.

Calculus, The Electrical Battery, The Telephone, The Steam Engine, The Radio - All These Groundbreaking Innovations Were Hit Upon By Multiple Inventors Working In Parallel With No Knowledge Of One Another.

This Is How Great Intellectual Breakthroughs Usually Happen In Practice. It Is Rarely The Isolated Genius Having A Eureka Moment Alone In The Lab. Nor Is It Merely A Question Of Building On Precedent, Of Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants, In Newton's Famous Phrase. Great Breakthroughs Are Closer To What Happens In A Flood Plain: A Dozen Separate Tributaries Converge, And The Rising Waters Lift The Genius High Enough That He Or She Can See Around The Conceptual Obstructions Of The Age.

One Of The Founding Moments Of Public Health In The 19th Century Effectively Poisoned The Water Supply Of London Much More Effectively Than Any Modern Day Bioterrorist Could Have Ever Dreamed Of Doing.