11 Business Books Bill Gates Wants You to Read

6. “Where Good Ideas Come From” by Steven Johnson

Books on innovation is a dime a dozen which is why Gates was initially skeptical when he got the book. He said, “Lots of books have been written about innovation—what it is, the most innovative companies, how you measure it. The subject can seem a little faddish, but Johnson’s book is quite good at giving examples of how you create environments that can encourage good ideas.” The book has a 4.2 rating on Amazon from 169 customer reviews with 56% of readers giving it 5 stars.

What is the book about? Author Steven Johnson presents seven key patterns behind innovation and analyzes them across different industries and time frames. From Darwin to Google, he probes innovation hubs and reveals the common denominator among their “moments of originality.”

But Johnson challenges this view, which I liked: ‘We have a natural tendency to romanticize breakthrough innovations, imagining momentous ideas transcending their surroundings…But ideas are works of bricolage…We take the ideas we’ve inherited or that we’ve stumbled across, and we jigger them together into some new shape.’” This book truly deserves a spot in the 11 business books Bill Gates wants you to read because every organization will always need innovation.