stevenberlinjohnson.com: Winter In The City

Today was one of those days that reminds you why winter can be so much fun in NYC. (It's been pretty brutal otherwise the past month or so.) We had our first real snowfall a few days ago, and this morning I took our three-year-old out for a sledding expedition in Prospect Park. The best sledding is on the west side of the Meadow, near the dog beach and ballfields, though today we were pretty much sledding all the way from our house and back. The snow had a consistency that I'd never seen before in Brooklyn: we'd had a warmish snowfall, followed by a few days of frigid weather, with a bit of a thaw today. The result was snow that you could walk (or slide) across without cracking the surface, but at the same time it wasn't slippery underfoot. So there was zero friction for riding (or pulling) the sled, but you didn't feel like you were walking on an ice rink. We ended up at one point lying on the snow, looking up at the sky and talking about the food chain and how the sun indirectly supplies energy for our bodies. It was pretty idyllic all around. Then back home for a lunch of soup and warm bread with the rest of the family. You can't beat that.

The Basics

I'm a father of three boys, husband of one wife, and author of eight books, and co-founder of three web sites. We spend most of the year in Marin County, California though I'm on the road a lot giving talks. (You can see the full story here.) Personal correspondence should go to sbeej68 at gmail dot com. If you're interested in having me speak at an event, drop a line to Wesley Neff at the Leigh Bureau (WesN at Leighbureau dot com.)

My Books

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!

Comments

this post really makes one want to puke

Posted by: r | February 17, 2007 at 09:45 PM

Did I read that correctly... you sat with your 3 year old son and discussed the food web?

Impressive kid you have there Steven :D

Posted by: Kinetic | February 18, 2007 at 05:59 PM

Steven--You and I (a former 11th St resident) have boys of the same age. I took him sledding in the hood, and all I got was "Again, again!" Please advise on how I can interest him in the realm of the photo-genetive.

Posted by: Mike Merrill | February 18, 2007 at 07:54 PM

The food web conversation sounds a little more precocious than it actually is. We talk a little about energy and the sun and plants, etc in normal conversation (though not nearly as much as we talk about SpongeBob), and in this particular case we were sitting staring up at the sun through a bunch of tree branches, so we got to talking about why plants have leaves, etc. It was definitely a bit out of the ordinary, which was in part why it was so special...

Posted by: Steven Johnson | February 19, 2007 at 08:01 AM

Hey, that sounds terrific for a writer living in Prospect Park.

For the rest of us who don't live in hip neighborhoods, winter means navigating mounds of dirty snow and ice that accumlate at crosswalks, neighbors that barely (or don't) shovel and trying not to slip and kill ourselves on the way to the subway/bus.

Posted by: Tim | February 19, 2007 at 09:27 AM

That's still impressive tho. Shows that it takes enough positive interaction and worthwhile spent time to raise a bright child.

I honestly can't wait to start having kids, and fear it all the same :D

Posted by: Kinetic | February 19, 2007 at 12:08 PM

very
very
nice
thanks...

Posted by: evden eve nakliyat | March 24, 2007 at 03:09 AM

[url=http://www.39jy.com/pifu/yulinbing/index.htm]鱼鳞病[/url]
[url=http://www.39jy.com/pifu/shizhen/index.htm]湿疹[/url]
[url=http://www.39jy.com/pifu/piyan/index.htm]脂溢性皮炎[/url]
[url=http://www.jjzlw.com/]尖锐湿疣[/url]
[url=http://www.39jy.com/pifu/cuochuang/index.htm]青春痘[/url]

Posted by: cxmmc | April 06, 2007 at 01:12 AM