Wired has a great short piece on how the winning team of the Netflix $1 million challenge came up with their solution. The challenge was to improve Netflix's search and rating system by 10% – something that took years (and he winners own by mere minutes, too). Several key Medici Effect rules stand out:

1. New ideas are generated when you combine existing ideas

"The top two teams beat the challenge by combining teams and their algorithms into more complex algorithms incorporating everybody's...