A Dichotomy in Invention : Finders Seekers

Are innovators "seekers" ? or "finders" ?
and does it make a difference ?

We refer here to the website Arts of Innovation
and its sister Arts of Innovation blog
which are described as follows:

"The author
Colin Stewart, innovation columnist for the Orange County Register, runs this Web site and the associated Arts of Innovation blog. He can be reached by e-mail at cestewart (at) cox.net.

The researcher
ArtsOfInnovation.com and the Arts of Innovation blog elaborate on research into the careers of experimental and conceptual innovators by University of Chicago economist David Galenson."
[links added]

Galenson is the author of
Old Masters and Young Geniuses:
Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity

which has been reviewed by Malcolm Gladwell as follows in Age Before Beauty:

"There’s a really wonderful book that’s come out by a guy named David Galenson, who’s an economist at the University of Chicago... There’s something very interesting and important to be learned about the way our minds work by entertaining the notion that there are two very different styles of creativity, the Picasso and the Cézanne."

Definitely worth a read and we have blogrolled them at Literary Pundit and LawPundit.

See also Inside Innovation