David Byrne (SOLD OUT)
About the event
It’s nice to believe in a meritocracy of ideas — genius is always recognized, innovation always seized upon and rewarded. But in reality, so many of the people we now acknowledge as the world’s great creators initially got little traction for their work. It faded out, and only later — often much later — did it somehow come roaring back to life. Musician and creative force David Byrne has found fascination in these erstwhile creators and their ideas, calling them sleeping beauties. Discoveries as diverse as dark matter, lichen, and continental drift... technologies from solar panels to the steam engine... artists from Bach to Bruegel, Vermeer to Melville... all, David Byrne shows us, were sleeping beauties. Why did they fall asleep? How did they wake back up?
Sleeping Beauties: Why Good Ideas Go Dormant and How They Wake Up is a master class in how not to overlook the next great thing. Several times throughout history, the shock of the new landed like a blow on vested interests and entrenched views, putting innovation on hold. Suppression emerged from pushback, the absence of key supporters, or simply a lack of complementary economic conditions. But more important even than why ideas go dormant is why they reawaken.
Byrne’s stories are humbling but also hopeful, adding up to a compass that leads us to the courage to try new things and the wisdom to embrace them.
