Serendipity as Engineerable Asset

“The point is simple. If you look at all the really important breakthroughs made in any field, what you will find is that the unplanned, unintended or fortuitous connection plays just as great a role as the planned, the processed and the organised. This is why, fairly early on, Microsoft placed whiteboards along the corridors on the Redmond campus; for they found that the accidental meetings which took place in hallways were in fact more productive than the scheduled ones which happened in meeting rooms.”

“One book, called Serendipity, makes the point that most scientific advance comes not through the dogged and meticulous pursuit of a solution, but through a kind of inspired opportunism in response to a lucky connection. Another, called A Perfect Mess details how a messy desk and the accidental juxtaposition of two apparently unrelated papers led to a Nobel prize.”