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. Wired: Why Startups Should Steal Ideas and Hire Weirdos To summarize: People act like idea-processing machines combining individual thinking and social learning from the experiences of others. Success depends greatly on the quality of exploration and that, in turn, relies on the diversity and independence of our information and idea sources. By harvesting from the parts of our social network that touch other streams — that is, by crossing what sociologist Ron Burt called the “structural holes” within the fabric of society — we can create innovation. When we choose to dip into a different stream, we bring up new habits and beliefs, and it is these innovations that help us make better decisions, and help our community to thrive.
