In the Air by Malcolm Gladwell

My Pick is the newest category in my blog, which I decided to add about three minutes ago. Every week, I usually come across an article, essay, movie, person, or idea that I find fascinating or inspiring. I tend to file these fascination bits away for future reference, and am always eager to tell people about my great find - almost like I'm the only one who knows about it! Instead, I'm just going to start sharing them on my blog each week, probably posting on Sundays, but I'm too impatient to wait that long for my first one, so I'll do it this morning.

Since The New Yorker is my favorite magazine, it's only fitting that my first pick come from there, and last week's issue made this easy.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote an interesting article on Intellectual Ventures, a eclectic group of geniuses that sit around and manufacture inventions.

IV was founded by a couple scientists, Nathan Myhrvold and Edward Jung.

Intellectual Ventures isn't your typical VC firm. IV doesn't listen to over zealous entrepreneurs pitch their world changing ideas, rather, IV creates world changing ideas. Their focus is on inventing, and then investing in people to turn their inventions into reality.

So what you've got is a company founded by two brilliant ex-Microsoft executives who have built a dream team of geniuses in the fields of technology, physics, biotechnology, math, business, computer science, and most important, intellectual property. Bottom line, this would be a pretty intimidating group to be around, but also one of the most intellectually rewarding.

Gladwell, an innovative thinker in his own right, uses his article to argue that innovation doesn't form from singular minds like Einstein, Newton, Graham Bell, etc., like we are accustomed to. Instead, he opines that inventions merely float in the air and are created by intelligent people working together. Gladwell writes:

A scientific genius is not a person who does what no one else can do; he or she is someone who does what it takes many others to do. The genius is not a unique source of insight; he is merely an efficient source of insight.

All in all, this is an extremely engaging article that may change the way you look at innovation and invention.

Links:
Malcolm Gladwell's Website and Blog
Intellectual Ventures
New Yorker Article - Annals of Innovation: In the Air by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell 2004 TED Presentation: