Leaders Read#89

👋 Hello everyone,

Isaac Newton said, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

Here are a few resources you might have missed:

• One of my favorite takeaways from Creative Confidence by Tom and David Kelly

• Book notes: Influence is Your Superpower by Zoe Chance

• All 190 Book notes for your enjoyment

• Catch-up: #1 - #89 Leaders Read Newsletters

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📚 Book Summary:

This week's book is "Where Good Ideas Come From" by Steven Johnson.

Steven Johnson explores where good ideas originate and how innovation has evolved, from when Darwin stood on a shoreline pondering nature’s patterns to today’s open-source mindset. When zooming out, it is easy to see how ideas build on shared platforms and collective progress.

One of my favorite takeaways from the book is this:

"Everything is built on platforms. In a funny way, the real benefit of stacked platforms lies in the knowledge you no longer need to have. You don't need to know how to send signals to satellites or parse geo-data to send that tweet circulating through the Web's ecosystem. Miles Davis didn't have to build a valved trumpet or invent the D Dorian mode to record Kind of Blue. The songbird sitting in an abandoned woodpecker's nest doesn't need to know how to drill a hole into the side of a poplar or how to fall a hundred-foot tree. That is the generative power of open platforms. The songbird doesn't carry the cost of drilling because the knowledge of how to do those things was openly supplied by other species in the chain. She just needs to know how to tweet."

✅ Actionable advice:

As a leader, stop obsessing over mastering and understanding every layer—focus instead on recognizing which layers are stable, which are shifting, and where you can add the most value. As Peter Drucker reminded us, your greatest impact comes from your strongest contribution—so identify the part of the platform you can influence and take one bold action toward it today.

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I hope you have a great week!