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Reference: R: Where good ideas come from by Steven Johnson p. 30, 33, 35, 41
The adjacent possible tells us about the number of possibilities for change achievable in an environment at a given moment. It's dynamic—its boundaries of possibilities grow as you explore those boundaries.
One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the nature of new ideas. Ideas don't appear out of thin air. They need existing parts to be built from. Each new idea is a new combination produced from what is currently possible. The great thing about it is that whenever a new idea springs up, what is currently possible expands as well.
That said, big cities are disproportionally more innovative than towns because they allow for a far bigger exploration of the adjacent possible. This allows niches and specializations to exist which would be unsustainable in small towns.
Therefore, if you want to become more creative you need to seek environments that help you explore the edges of the adjacent possible. Look for places that provide you with spare parts that you can recombine in novel ways to innovate.
This can be as simple as changing your everyday work environment, nurturing a network of people with diverse interests, or maintaining certain habits in the way you seek and store information.
Relevant notes:
This connects to the adjacent possible PN: What is the adjacent possible One has to be bold to reach the boundaries of possibilities.
FleetingNote Why is alternating between exploring and exploiting valuable? Is it somehow related to the adjacent possible? What else is it related to? Is it about local maxima? Is it about tunnel vision? Is it about our local past? Develop
Or seen differently, each new idea acts as an additional lens through which you can observe reality. This means that the bigger your network of ideas, the more ideas you're able to notice and understand (it's similar to the adjacent possible). It's a virtuous cycle.
PN: What is the adjacent possible: This period is about feeding your brain with different ideas. Each idea will broaden the definition of what is possible.
PN: What is the adjacent possible: The boundaries of your creativity grow as you explore them.
PN: What is the adjacent possible: each new perspective expands the limits of what is possible. The more new information you absorb, the more possibilities will lay in front of you.
PN: What is the adjacent possible: the adjacent possible defines the boundaries of our collective imagination.
PN: The size and density of a network determine its creativity; PN: What is the adjacent possible: the internet massively expanded the network leading to immense possibilities.
It's really hard to overcome this tendency [1]. You can have checklists with cognitive biases and mental models that force you to rethink your judgments. However, another and often simpler method is to ask your friends to do it for you: "they can challenge you, give you reasons and arguments that sometimes trigger new intuitions, thereby making it possible for us to change our minds." (PN: What is the adjacent possible: friends can expand our adjacent possible.)
Additionally, when you increase the number of new experiences, the adjacent possible—i.e., the number of possibilities in a given environment—grows. The closer you get to the boundaries of what is a normal experience to you, the more possibilities of expanding it apear.