Absolutely nobody wanted to work there.

Hastily built out of corrugated metal and cheap plywood during the Second World War, Building 20 was the worst office on campus.

A temporary overflow for everyone from linguists to physicists, it was filled to the brim with scientists who didn’t belong together.

The building itself was a disaster, complete with leaking pipes and a roof that let in the rain.

Corridors were narrow and confusing, so people kept running into each other.

Unplanned meetings led to random conversations. Casual conversations turned into ideas bouncing back and forth. Before long, problems that seemed impossible in one field became obvious to another. 

An explosion of breakthroughs followed, in everything from computers and video games to early artificial intelligence, not to mention nine Nobel Prizes.

In a place so forgettable it barely had a name; this accidental mixing pot of minds would casually go on to change history.

Mix It Up

Nature is endlessly reminding us of the value of diversity.

This happens everywhere – the natural world likes to mix things up for a reason.

Forests with lots of different trees are more likely to survive hard winters. Communities with more genetic diversity are less likely to pass on inherited diseases. A more diverse diet leads to a healthier gut microbiome.

It turns out the same principles that keep our bodies resilient keep our ideas from going stale too.

New perspectives force the brain out of autopilot. Left to their own devices, our minds are extremely good at sticking with what they know. As a result, they often end up playing it safe, defaulting to the familiar, and circling the same territory.

This explains why the best thinking often happens at the edge of disciplines, where no single perspective dominates.