Resources / Strands
Knowledge Spillovers
Go out of your way to interact with people from different domains.
As part of the emergency war research effort, Building 20, a temporary timber structure, was built on the central campus of MIT. It was an enormous structure and built so haphazardly that MIT promised to demolish it as soon as the war ended. But due to a chronic lack of space, Building 20 was turned into offices for scientists who had nowhere else to go.
It stayed in use until 1998, by which time Building 20 had become a legend of innovation, widely regarded as one of the most creative spaces in the world.
One of the main reasons for this was that it allowed scientists, engineers and students from different disciplines to freely mix. Due to its enormous size and haphazard planning, multiple departments, some of whom would never normally overlap, were able to bounce ideas around.
The normal silos and physical separation was absent - thus leading to an increase in serendipity and curiosity. We're nothing if not nosy about what everyone else is doing, and how it can inform our own work and ideas.