In my ongoing effort to remember what I have read, some notes on the book: Happy Accidents; Serendipity in Major Medical Breakthroughs in the Twentieth Century by Morton A. Meyers.

Managed Serendipity

A Phrankism is the term “Managed Serendipity” which essentially means, we create our own luck. 

Meyers references the origin of the word namely the Persian Princes of Serendip who  “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of” (Wiktionary – Serendipity).

In some ways, Meyers’ book is an example of coming full circle from my personal ethos and the stories and principles in which it was based.  If there was a simple theme of this book it is that ‘a prepared mind will beat a focused mind when it comes to chance; a focused mind is required to turn chance into opportunity‘. 

“[Serendipity] is now loosely applied in the popular media to cover such circumstances as luck, coincidence, or a fortunate turn of events. This sadly distorts it. Serendipity means the attainment or discovery of something valuable that was not sought, the unexpected observation seized upon and turned to advantage by the prepared mind. The key factor of sagacity has been lost. Chance alone does not bring about discoveries. Chance with judgment can.“

Courting Serendipity

Meyers lists about 40 medical (mostly pharmaceutical) discoveries made through happy chance.  They range from the life saving (germ theory, psychopharmacological drugs or antibiotics) to the deranged and unfortunate (lobotomies or LSD).  

“…the great secret of science is how much of what is sought is not actually found, and how much of what has been found was not specifically sought.“

In nearly every case, the individual(s) who made the discovery were looking for something else and stumbled upon the actions of the treatment by having an open mind.  In many cases the original discoverer was not the person who took it across the finish line (e.g. Penicillin and antibiotics were discovered by Fleming but brought to full production in WWII thanks to American industrial efforts and a team from Oxford University; source Wikipedia).  

Beyond a series of stories about the state of medical research or medicine in general (as a medical history read), Meyer’s book is really about tenacity, creativity and in many cases an outsider not influenced by the norms of the day.  

“Creative thinkers tend to take analogies and anomalies to higher levels. They have a gift for seeing similar differences and different similarities— phrases coined by the British theoretical physicist David Bohm.“

Skunks & Serendipity

This is a good read for history (medical or otherwise) buffs but also the business reader.  In many ways business is discovering the merits of the chance discovery even while the world of medicine is moving away from it.  

Design thinking, skunk works or working on private projects are a fixture of innovative organizations (think the Post-it Note Story).  Business organizations have in many ways moved away from large central Research and Development organizations and have embraced the power of the ‘crazy idea’, ‘prototype’ and ‘fail fast‘.  

Unfortunately, the drug industry and government funded research has moved in an opposite direction, according to Myers. They pursue singularly focused research objectives, ‘me-too’ drugs or even create new diseases to sell drugs they currently own.  

Given the demands for results on the part of governments or the long development lead times for drug companies, this behaviour is expected and unfortunate at the same time.  

Balancing Serendipity

In many ways those who make a revolutionary discovery the causes a paradigm shift are our heroes.  Meyers fully celebrates their luck and having prepared minds.  Nevertheless, as the penicillin story reminds us, discovering and optimizing are two different things.  

Organizations (including drug companies and government research funders) need to recognize that both are necessary for innovation and to continue to advance human progress.