Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
An exploration of environments that lead to breakthrough innovation, in science, technology, business, and the arts. I conceived it as the closing book in a trilogy on innovative thinking, after Ghost Map and Invention. But in a way, it completes an investigation that runs through all the books. Sold more copies in hardcover than anything else I've written.
The Invention of Air
The story of the British radical chemist Joseph Priestley, who ended up having a Zelig-like role in the American Revolution. My version of a founding fathers book, and a reminder that most of the Enlightenment was driven by open source ideals.
The Ghost Map
The latest: the story of a terrifying outbreak of cholera in 1854 London 1854 that ended up changing the world. An idea book wrapped around a page-turner. I like to think of it as a sequel to Emergence if Emergence had been a disease thriller. You can see a trailer for the book here.
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
The title says it all. This one sparked a slightly insane international conversation about the state of pop culture -- and particularly games. There were more than a few dissenters, but the response was more positive than I had expected. And it got me on The Daily Show, which made it all worthwhile.
Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
My first best-seller, and the only book I've written in which I appear as a recurring character, subjecting myself to a battery of humiliating brain scans. The last chapter on Freud and the neuroscientific model of the mind is one of my personal favorites.
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
The story of bottom-up intelligence, from slime mold to Slashdot. Probably the most critically well-received all my books, and the one that has influenced the most eclectic mix of fields: political campaigns, web business models, urban planning, the war on terror.
Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate
My first. The book I wrote instead of finishing my dissertation. Still in print almost a decade later, and still relevant, I think. But I haven't read it in a while, so who knows what's in there!
Hi, Steven, it's been a long time. :-)
This is probably not all that original, but you definitely want to go to Lan Kwai Fong in the Central District. A zone of bars, restaurants, hip shops, etc. See http://www.lankwaifong.com/.
I would recommend a meal at Yung Kee, on Wellington Street in Central, a sort of Hong Kong institution of dining.
If you have time, take the jet boat to Macau, which is a very interesting experience. The old part of the city is a fascinating array of Chinese and colonial architecture.
The best thing to do in Hong Kong is eat. It's the only place in the world besides Italy that qualifies as a total food culture. I've had one or two of the best meals of my life in Hong Kong.
Have a good trip! You're lucky to go. . . .
Posted by: Gary Chapman | December 02, 2005 at 02:40 PM
I'll second the Macau nomination. It is to Hong Kong what you were saying Brooklyn is to Manhattan: full of neighborhood and life rather than mere economic activity.
Posted by: john clayton | December 02, 2005 at 03:14 PM
Steve,
Depends a lot on what sorts of things to do you like to do? And whether you have two complete days. HK is about 80% national parks, so the urban areas are for the most part quite condensed. If you want to stay in HK, there are some very tourist things like going up the Peak. A visit to an outlyting island like Lamma is nice too and it has some great seafood restaurants - it's about a 40 minute ferry ride. The airport is on the biggest outlying island, Lantau, which has Po Lin Monastry with the Big Buddha statue. I live and work near Sai Kung - which was a small fishing village when I came here back in '83 but there is some nice hillwalking around this area. As I say, depends what you like. Feel free to email if you have any questions.
Posted by: Nick | December 02, 2005 at 05:44 PM
Check the Felix restaurant at the top of Peninsula Hotel (in Tsim Sha Tsui). The views from the men's room (I kid you not) are unforgettable and wortwhile. Besides, it's a nice place to have a drink.
Posted by: kim | December 03, 2005 at 08:41 PM
Check the Felix restaurant at the top of Peninsula Hotel (in Tsim Sha Tsui). The views from the men's room (I kid you not) are unforgettable and wortwhile. Besides, it's a nice place to have a drink.
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