Social Physics quotes Steve Jobs…
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty, because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.
It then continues…
The most consistently creative and insightful people are explorers. They spend an enormous amount of time seeking out new people and different ideas, without necessarily trying very hard to find the “best” people or “best ideas”. Instead, they seek out people with different views and different ideas.
Along with this continuous search for new ideas, these explorers do another interesting thing: They winnow down their most recently discovered ideas to the best ones through their habit of bouncing them off everyone they meet – and remember they meet many sorts of different people. Diversity of viewpoint and experience is an important success factor when harvesting innovative ideas.