Overview

The book explores the nature, underlying causes, and the information processing mechanism of serendipity.

It proposes that natural or social survival demands drive serendipity, and serendipity is conditional on the environment and the mindset, on both individual and collective levels. From Darwin’s evolution theory to Sun Tzu’s war tactics, major innovations throughout human history are unified by this key concept. In the rapidly changing world, information is abundant but rather chaotic.

The adaptive power of serendipity allows people to notice treasures within this wild sea, but only for those who understand how it works. To increase the probability of encountering and attaining serendipity, one should employ the mindsponge mechanism and the 3D process of creativity, for, without these frameworks, serendipity is truly an elusive target.

(A typical application of the mindsponge concept can also be examined through the title A mindsponge-based investigation into the psycho-religious mechanism behind suicide attacks.)

The book also discusses methods to build environments and cultures rich in navigational and useful information to maximize the chance of finding and capitalizing on serendipity. As a skill, serendipity has a resemblance to how kingfishers observe and hunt their prey.

Even though having the edited book format, all chapters follow a unified structure, forming a conceptual monograph. Each chapter provides a different angle to look at this central flow.