Sleeping Beauties. Why Good Ideas Go Dormant and How They Wake Up

From incomparable creative force David Byrne, a brilliant and inspiring reckoning with how breakthroughs across the arts and sciences get forgotten, and how they get rediscoveredIt's nice to believe in a meritocracy of ideas-genius is always recognized, innovation always seized upon and rewarded. In fact, 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 came roaring back to life. Discoveries as diverse as dark matter, lichen, and continental drift .