“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” This quote, attributed to Thomas Edison, emphasizes the importance of dedication, of commitment, of stick-to-itiveness. Those are fine qualities for a person to possess. But to me, the really interesting question is, Where does that one percent come from?
What is the source of the idea? What triggers the epiphany? What are the ingredients of insight? Where does creativity originate?
In ancient Greece Archimedes shouted “Eureka!” when his bath water showed him the connection between the density of an object (in his case, the king’s crown) and its chemical composition (pure gold).
When Einstein was stuck on a particularly thorny math problem, he achieved occasional breakthroughs while playing his violin.
Google founder Larry Page dreamt he could download the entire internet and, waking from his dream, he set out to build a search engine to do just that.
Each of these stories involves an individual who encountered an “orthogonal influence.” In this context, “orthogonal” means something that intersects at a right angle, or is unrelated, or comes straight out of left field. It is a singular influence which, when linked to something else, creates a novel combination.
The mission of Singular Links is simple — to explore how unique connections can birth unique outcomes. We investigate how ideas merge to create breakthroughs. We examine the dynamics in which linking ideas creates novelty. We catalog ways for you and me and all of us to harness the linking process in our daily lives.
Singular Links is a metaphor for the birthing process.
It is the hatch-farm of ideation. Read on!