Don't Start From Scratch: How Innovative Ideas Arise

Uses Thomas Thwaites's Toaster Project — an attempt to build a toaster entirely from raw materials, which yielded 400+ components and a melted-cake-looking appliance — to argue that innovation almost never comes from a blank slate. Birds' feathers evolved gradually from reptilian scales, and the Wright brothers built on Otto Lilienthal, Samuel Langley, and Octave Chanute. The most creative ideas are new combinations of old ones; the best path to progress is to iterate on what already works rather than originate from zero.