New ideas emerge within ecosystems

About 10 years ago I read a book by Steven Johnson named "Where Good Ideas Come From" and the main take-away at the time for me was that no idea is created in isolation, but rather within ecosystems.

For example, every app on the market is dependent on the very operating system it is designed for, namely iOS or Android. But then again, every operating system is itself dependent on the underlying hardware which itself is dependent on microchips delivered by manufacturers who themselves are dependent on raw materials mined across the earth and so on.

This chain of thought is true for any idea you can think of. No idea is created in a vacuum. Open ecosystems and the uninhibited flow of information facilitate the creation of new ideas, in contrast to closed systems and proprietary models.