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How Innovations Have Historically Emerged From Interconnected Brains
The four key factors of western creativity supremacy
It is easy to assume that the most successful nations in history were also the most inventive ones (China with gunpowder, Egypt and the windmill, among others).
Yet, the central place that Europe took in the 15th century seems less due to its inventors and more due to a unique social system based on cultural and cumulative transmission. By being told to leave their family nucleus, to learn from strangers, and to rely on the knowledge of others, Europeans were forced to rely on collective intelligence.
According to Joseph Heinrich in The Weirdest People in the World, this has resulted in an interconnection of practices and beliefs that has been fertile for western innovations. Here’s what this historical perspective can teach you about being more innovative.
The cultural connectivity of western societies
The emergence and domination of the Catholic Church over European countries like England, France, Italy, and the like during the Middle Ages had surprising effects on these societies. Through the new social practices it introduced (the taboo of incest over family members like cousins and beyond), it pushed…
