We yearn for frictionless, technological solutions. But people talking to people is still the way that norms and standards change.Illustration by Harry Campbell Why do some innovations spread so swiftly and others so slowly? Consider the very different trajectories of surgical anesthesia and antiseptics, both of which were discovered in the nineteenth century. The first public demonstration of ane
![Spreading Slow Ideas](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/f2936110077af1de30201b17203f2b93d3bc7f96/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.newyorker.com%2Fphotos%2F590965056552fa0be682ecf5%2F16%3A9%2Fw_1280%2Cc_limit%2F130729_r23758_g2048.jpg)