Neal talks about the virtues of not knowing what has succeeded or failed before:

Most people who work in corporations or academia have witnessed something like the following: A number of engineers are sitting together in a room, bouncing ideas off each other. Out of the discussion emerges a new concept that seems promising. Then some laptop-wielding person in the corner, having performed a quick Google search, announces that this “new” idea is, in fact, an old one—or at least vaguely similar—and has already been tried. Either it failed, or it succeeded. If it failed, then no manager who wants to keep his or her job will approve spending money trying to revive it. If it succeeded, then it’s patented and entry to the market is presumed to be unattainable, since the first people who thought of it will have “first-mover advantage” and will have created “barriers to entry.” The number of seemingly promising ideas that have been crushed in this way must number in the millions.

What if that person in the corner hadn’t been able to do a Google search? It might have required weeks of library research to uncover evidence that the idea wasn’t entirely new—and after a long and toilsome slog through many books, tracking down many references, some relevant, some not. When the precedent was finally unearthed, it might not have seemed like such a direct precedent after all. There might be reasons why it would be worth taking a second crack at the idea, perhaps hybridizing it with innovations from other fields. Hence the virtues of Galapagan isolation.

In other words, do not concern yourself with what others are doing or have done.

The key to innovation is to shut out the noise, and build something truly great.

And that means admitting the risk that it might FAIL.

The cost of innovation is risk.

And the reward of risk is innovation!

From a recent post I did on 10 ways proven to make you more creative:

1. Get on a plane. Travel, moving and exposure to other cultures improve creativity.
2. Don't surround yourself with the color red, stick to blue.
3. Get rejected.
4. Buy a potted plant.
5. Pretend you're solving problems for someone else. Or pretend you're a child.
6. Learn another language.
7. Think about love, not sex.
8. Hopeful employees are more creative, as are overconfident CEO's. But being creative won't get you the CEO job.
9. Take a break and stop being so hard on yourself.
10. Smile. Or frown while happy. But either way, be happy. 

What won't help? Money. It doesn't motivate us to be more creative.

And be careful what you wish for: Creative people are more dishonest and more arrogant.

Can we find creativity without dishonesty or arrogance, please?

Creativity comes in many forms -- like it or not. ;)

So then we can, it's just rare. :)

Great article throughout, and the parallels to evolution are intriguing. Neil is a great writer -- I highly recommend Cryptonomicon for anyone who hasn't read it yet.

Thanks Mark -- I'm putting Cryptonomicon on my "to read" list.