In a media culture, we not only judge strangers by how they look but by the images of how they look. So we want attractive pictures of our heroes and repulsive images of our enemies.
Virginia PostrelRead
Surprise drives progress because innovation depends on the sort of knowledge no one can gather in a central place.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Surprise fosters innovation by encouraging unconventional ideas that cannot be centralized or predicted.
This quote by Virginia Postrel highlights the essential role of surprise in the process of innovation. It suggests that true progress emerges from unexpected insights and knowledge that cannot be easily gathered or organized, emphasizing the importance of creativity and spontaneity in generating new ideas and solutions.
Themes
SurpriseInnovationProgressKnowledgeCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a business meeting discussing new product ideas, one might quote this to emphasize the value of unexpected insights.
More from Virginia Postrel
All quotes βGlamour doesnβt just happen, people donβt wake up in the morning glamorous.
Virginia PostrelRead
With its fluctuating forms and needless decoration, fashion epitomizes the supposedly unproductive waste that inspired 20th-century technocrats to dream of central planning. It exists for no good reason. But that's practically a definition of art.
Virginia PostrelRead
A world of few choices, whether in jeans or mates, is a world in which individual differences become sources of alienation, unhappiness, even self-loathing. If no jeans fit, you'll feel uncomfortable or inferior. If no housing developments reflect your taste for unique architecture, you'll write screeds against philistine mass culture.
Virginia PostrelRead
Most of us cluster somewhere in the middle of most statistical distributions. But there are lots of bell curves, and pretty much everyone is on a tail of at least one of them. We may collect strange memorabilia or read esoteric books, hold unusual religious beliefs or wear odd-sized shoes, suffer rare diseases or enjoy obscure movies.
Virginia PostrelRead
'Frankenstein' did not invent the fear of science; the novel found its audience because it dramatized anxieties that already existed. Although popular entertainment can, over the long run, shape public perceptions, it becomes popular in the first place only if it addresses preexisting hopes, fears, and fascinations.
Virginia PostrelRead
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