Showing results by author "Steven Johnson" in All Categories

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson, read by George Newbern. From Steven Johnson, the best-selling author of Where Good Ideas Come From, comes How We Got to Now, which tracks the surprising inspirations and unexpected consequences of the most influential innovations.

What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen? Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture, Johnson provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward.

As a species we have doubled our life expectancy in just 100 years. All the advances of modern life - the medical breakthroughs, the public health institutions, the rising standards of living - have given us each about 20,000 extra days on average. There are few measures of human progress more astonishing than our increased longevity. This book is Steven Johnson’s attempt to understand where that progress came from. 

Innovation starts with a problem whose solution sets in motion all kinds of unexpected discoveries. That's why you can draw a line from pendulums to punching the clock at a factory, from ice blocks to summer movie blockbusters, from clean water to computer chips. In the lively storytelling style that has made him a popular, best-selling author Steven Johnson looks at how accidental genius, brilliant mistakes, and unintended consequences shape the way we live in the modern world. 

Are you a beginner who is looking to open a self-directing stock investing account for the first time? If so, that means Stock Market Investing for Beginners is the book you are looking for! Running your own self-directed investing account can be exciting and empowering. But do you really know the ins and outs of the stock market? If you don’t really know what’s going on, you can end up losing a lot of money. But if you prepare ahead of time and do things right, then you can have a long and successful investing career. 

Henry Every was the 17th century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular - and wildly inaccurate - reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event - the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew - and its surprising repercussions across time and space.

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Mind Wide Open comes a groundbreaking assessment of popular culture as it's never been considered before: through the lens of intelligence. Forget everything you’ve ever read about the age of dumbed-down, instant-gratification culture.

Best-selling author Steven Johnson recounts - in dazzling, multidisciplinary fashion - the story of the brilliant man who embodied the relationship between science, religion, and politics for America's Founding Fathers. The Invention of Air is a title of world-changing ideas wrapped around a compelling narrative, a story of genius and violence and friendship in the midst of sweeping historical change that provokes us to recast our understanding of the Founding Fathers.

Do scientists see conflict between science and faith? Which cultural factors shape the attitudes of scientists toward religion? Can scientists help show us a way to build collaboration between scientific and religious communities? To answer these questions and more, the authors of Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion completed the most comprehensive international study of scientists' attitudes toward religion ever undertaken, surveying more than 20,000 scientists and conducting in-depth interviews with over 600 of them.

Combining the deft social analysis of Where Good Ideas Come From with the optimistic arguments of Everything Bad Is Good for You, New York Times best-selling author Steven Johnson's Future Perfect makes the case that a new model of political change is on the rise, transforming everything from local governments to classrooms, from protest movements to health care. Johnson paints a compelling portrait of this new political worldview.

How can you help your hunches help you? Steven Johnson, author of "How We Got To Now," has a suggestion for what to do with those pesky ideas that flit in and out of your mind. Revolutionary Insights is curated from the Computer History Museum's Revolutionaries interview series and is brought to you by Audible. This talk was originally recorded on October 21, 2015.

How is actual innovation different from the myths we make about it? Steven Johnson, author of "How We Got to Now," discusses two common misconceptions. Revolutionary Insights is curated from the Computer History Museum's Revolutionaries interview series and is brought to you by Audible. This talk was originally recorded on October 21, 2015.

What connects Paleolithic bone flutes to the invention of computer software? Or the Murex sea snail to the death of the great American city? How does the bag of crisps you hold in your hand help tell the story of humanity itself? In his brilliant new work on the history of innovation, international best-seller Steven Johnson argues that the pursuit of novelty and wonder has always been a powerful driver of world-shaping technological change.

Sean Wellington is a neurotic music video director who was just given the opportunity of a lifetime: to direct his first feature film. In the midst of this celebration, comes a tumultuous breakup with his girlfriend as his neurosis looms overhead while he tries to reorganize his personal and professional lives. A Talent for Trouble is the story of Sean’s battle to balance real-life romance while living through a camera lens.