Big cities, multiple communities, networks for innovation

Here’s an idea I like a lot, especially since I’m big city guy. Still talking about Steven Johnson’s book, on page 160 he summarizes research from a Berkeley sociologist named Claude Fischer. Fisher had one overwhelming conclusion published in 1975: “big cities nurture subcultures much more effectively than suburbs or small towns.” One of the points is that a large city allows people outside the mainstream to find others with whom they can connect. And part of this is just mathematical if there’s 100,000 people it would be easier to find somebody if you’re on the edges it would be easier to find somebody with you and in a community of 100 people. And so Fischer’s point cited by Johnson is that, “clustering creates a positive feedback loop as the more unconventional residents of the server suburbs or rural areas migrate to the city in search of fellow travelers.”

This is very closely related to research that was done by a Stanford professor named Martin Ruef who concluded that “the most creative individuals… Consistently had broad social networks that extended outside their organization and involved people from diverse fields of expertise. Diverse horizontal social networks… were three times more innovative than uniform vertical networks. In groups united by shared values and long-term familiarity, conformity and convention tended to dampen any potential creative sparks.” To continue, “employees who primarily shared information with people in their own division had a harder time coming up with you with useful suggestions… When measured against employees who maintained active links to a more diverse group.”

This leads to Johnson discussing Watson and Crick who are notorious for amongst other things connecting with people outside their regular circles and “taking long, rambling coffee breaks, were they tossed around ideas in a more playful setting outside the lab–a practice that was generally scorned by their more fastidious colleagues.” Time to go for a walk and ask the bus driver what she things about punctuated equilibrium.