How chaos makes us more creative.

• Author: Bragg, Meredith
• Position: Eric Weiner, 'The Geography of Genius' - Soundbite - Interview

Why have certain places at certain times become hubs of innovation and novel thought? That's the question at the heart of travel writer Eric Weiner's latest book, The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World's Most Creative Places, from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley. By examining the cultures that fostered history's greatest minds, he pieced together a list of ingredients for creativity, some of which may surprise you.

Reason TV Managing Editor Meredith Bragg sat down with Weiner in January. For a video of the interview, visit reason.com.

Q: Let's talk about chaos.

A: A little bit of chaos is good. There was a neuroscientist named Walter Freeman who hooked up rabbits to [electroen-cephalograms] and then introduced them to smells. He noticed that whenever the rabbits were introduced to a new smell, their brains entered a chaotic state--what Freeman called the l-don't-know state. And if you think about it, all creative breakthroughs are preceded by that l-don't-know state.

In all great people and great places there's an element of tension and discomfort, and often there's a catastrophe that precedes a golden age. It's Athens being sacked by the Persians and then being rebuilt by Pericles and building the Acropolis and these wonderful marvels that we still admire today. Or Florence being hit by the Black Death, and no more than two generations later we have the blossoming of the Renaissance. Bad things can lead to good things.

Q: And that goes into the idea that you need disruption.

A: I think so. If you're fully invested in the status quo, you're unlikely to create genius because you're too comfortable. And if I look at the individuals in my book, they all were, to some extent, outsiders.

Q: There are lot of places, including Qatar and London, that are trying to build the [next] Silicon Valley. And inevitably they fail.

A: I wish I could tell you there's a formula and if you apply it you'll have the next Silicon Valley. I'd be a very wealthy man if I had that...