Steven Johnson and the Pandemic
Steven Johnson is a popular science author. Popular science is a form of science that appeals to a broad and general audience rather than a very specific and well-educated audience. I think Steven Johnson decided to write a book, specifically Where Good Ideas Come From, because he wrote around six books before it and it sounded like a good idea.
I’m just kidding! But seriously, I think Steven Johnson wrote Where Good Ideas Come From because it was something he thought he should spread, and I agree with him. This relates to the general theme of the book, too. This is because innovation is the biggest theme in the book. Innovation to me is the spreading of ideas and the improvement of those ideas. With Steven Johnson spreading information in a more open and communicative way it’s much easier to read than most science books. I, personally, found the book overall fairly interesting and easy to read.
There were many reefs damaged when the pandemic first fully affected the United States. Many small businesses went bankrupt and out of business. People lost their jobs if they couldn’t work from home. Many people also lost loved ones they held close. These reefs are being cured mostly but lost family can’t be cured. A lot of small businesses are able to start back up with more people going outside and following precautions. More jobs are opening up again. While the pandemic is far from over, it is clear America is going back to the way it was. Innovation will never and can never stop. With vaccines being produced for public use, people will be back to normal soon.
But how is Steven Johnson related to the pandemic? Steven Johnson is not directly related to the pandemic, but his ideas are. There has been a lot of innovation required due to the pandemic. One thing I took away from Where Good Ideas Come From is that innovation is a seed and many things need to go into it in order to sprout. When the pandemic started, people had to start wearing masks and social distancing. I consider this the first innovation of the pandemic. While wearing masks are common in some foreign countries, this was the first time the in U.S. where it was common to wear masks. Now, if you’re not wearing a mask, people will be angry at you, and for a good reason. “The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself” (Johnson 31). The adjacent possible, in the case of the pandemic would be something like the multiple types of new masks that are being produced. There are even masks that help with more than reducing the spread of covid. There are masks that can help people with seasonal allergies now.
