Great ideas often develop gradually after studying a problem at length-but not a
lways. Sometimes, an insight hits like a bolt from the blue. For Archimedes, cla
rity struck while he was taking a bath. For Gustav Mahler, it came as the blades
of his oars touched the water. And for Albert Einstein, it emerged while he was
talking to a friend. Why do these moments of insight strike so suddenly? Why do
they so often come to us when we are focused on something completely unrelated?
And when great ideas "come to" us, where do they come from? In Aha!: The Moment
s of Insight that Shape Our World, philosopher William B. Irvine, author of A Gu
ide to the Good Life and On Desire, explores these epiphanies, from the minor in
sights that strike us all daily, to the major realizations that alter the course
of history.
