Popular wisdom attributes achievement to the individual: Darwin’s natural selection, Mozart’s symphonies, Newton’s laws. It seems real, it feels real and most schooling teaches us that it is real.
But, Darwin’s notebooks show the great influence his predecessors and contemporaries had on his idea; Mozart claimed he studied the masters more than anyone; and Newton, a notorious recluse, admitted his achievements were only made possible by “standing on the shoulders of giants.”
This year Fields Medal winner Timothy Gowers used his blog to facilitate mass collaboration and solve a notoriously difficult problem in mathematics.
Great discovers are the result of collaboration, both with the past and the present.
The faulty assumption of popular wisdom prevents the full potential for innovation a hyper-connected society can achieve.
Perhaps it is finally time for every organization to expand its walls beyond the physical structure of the building to include anyone who is willing to help.
This shift requires a fundamental rethinking of the concept of employee.
It seems practical. It seems necessary. But, ultimately, it seems inevitable.
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