Robert K.Merton Archives | Serendipitor's Weblog

Why Innovation Can’t Rely on Happy Accidents

18.01.2026

1. Why Walpolean Serendipity Fails the Boardroom Test In most organizations, serendipity is still quietly understood as luck, coincidence, or […]

10.01.202610.01.2026

In my previous essays, I explored how certain crucial concepts — unanticipated, anomalous, strategic — have quietly slipped out of […]

02.01.202602.01.2026

Reclaiming Serendipity: From Wild West to Rigorous Pattern It’s time to write again a serious “Respect Serendipity” essay. The ongoing […]

29.12.2025

We speak endlessly about unexpected discoveries, unexpected encounters, and unexpected insights. That alone should make us pause. If something is […]

28.11.202530.11.2025

Jerome Bruner (1915–2016) was one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century — a pioneering thinker who reshaped […]

19.11.202508.01.2026

Some books inform you. A few books accompany you.And a very small number become intellectual landmarks you return to again […]

07.10.2025

As this, or any other, complex word grows in usage, it gathers up many new meanings… to the point where […]

21.06.202501.10.2025

Twenty years ago, I coined a phrase that became the name of my blog, my philosophy, and eventually a guiding […]

15.05.202515.05.2025

Do you often wonder, why we are nowadays constantly surrounded by a deluge of information, opportunities, and distractions. It’s a […]

22.02.202524.02.2025

What if your company had a great and more frequent ability to discover more valuable things than those for which […]

01.02.202530.07.2025

Introduction When you hear the word serendipity, what comes to mind? Most of us picture a single lucky accident—a scientist […]