This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.

1. 1. Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned

   

   This book argues that deliberately planning for exceptional breakthroughs is misguided because objective-driven search often gets stuck on local optima, missing the unpredictable, serendipitous paths that lead to true innovation; instead, it promotes open-ended, exploratory approaches—like seeking novelty and preserving ‘stepping stones’—that let surprising and useful solutions emerge. Drawing on experiments in evolutionary computation, robotics, and creative systems, it shows how divergent search methods can outperform strict optimization and explains why institutions, research practices, and education should prioritize exploration, diversity, and conditions that enable unexpected discoveries.

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