Metaskills- Five Talents for the Robotic Age
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Niels Bohr and paradox: Niels Bohr: The Man, His Science, and the World They Changed, by Ruth Moore (1966).
Thinking whole thoughts
Painter Robert Irwin: Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, by Lawrence Weschler (University of California Press, 1982).
The father of holistic invention: The Science of Leonardo, Capra.
Macroscopes: In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World, by John Thackara (MIT Press, 2006).
I have yet to see any problem: Thinking in Systems: A Primer, by Donella H. Meadows (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008).
Don’t get involved in partial problems: Notebooks 1914-1916, by Ludwig Wittgenstein, edited by G.E.M. Anscombe and G.H. von Wright (University of Chicago Press, 1984).
How systems work
Elements, interconnections, and purpose: Thinking in Systems, Meadows.
Latency: Ibid.
Feedback types: The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge (Doubleday, 1990).
Unfamiliar shower: Ibid.
State government raises taxes: Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One, by Thomas Sowell (Basic Books, 2003).
Overvaluing the short term: “When Our Brains Short-Circuit,” by Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, July 1, 2009.
Grandma was right
First rule of systems: Thinking in Systems, Meadows.
Systems create archetypes: The Fifth Discipline, Senge.
Rick Perry on global warming: “Global Warming Based on Scientists Manipulating Data,” by Dina Cappiello, The Huffington Post, August 17, 2011.
Cold War escalation: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, by Steven Pinker (Viking, 2011).
Obama drone program: “Coming Soon: The Drone Arms Race,” by Scott Shane, The New York Times, October 8, 2011.
Archetype 5: “The Tragedy of the Commons,” by Garrett Hardin, 1968, tinyurl.com/6p33g
Three ways out of the trap: Thinking in Systems, Meadows.
The United Nations’ carbon credits: “Carbon Credits Gone Awry Raise Output of Harmful Gas,” by Elisabeth Rosenthal and Andrew W. Lehren, The New York Times, August 8, 2012.
IBM’s transformation: Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?, by Louis V. Gerstner (Collins, 2003).
Kodak’s loss of momentum: The Designful Company, by Marty Neumeier (New Riders, 2009).
Competitive Exclusion Principle: The Struggle for Existence, by Georgii Frantsevich Gause (Williams & Wilkins, 1934).
No Child Left Behind Act: Standards: Recipes for Reality, by Lawrence Busch (MIT Press, 2011).
Obvious yet subversive: Thinking in Systems, Meadows.
The primacy of purpose
Organizing purpose of a company: The Designful Company, Neumeier.
To create a customer: The Practice of Management, by Peter Drucker (Heinemann, 1967).
Some people just got too big-headed: “Toyoda Concedes Profit Focus Led to Flaws,” by Norihiko Shirouzu, The Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2010.
European Dream: Dress to Kill, by Eddie Izzard (Vision Video, 1998).
Robert F. Kennedy presidential election address: University of Kansas, March 18, 1968, tinyurl.com/3btkx7n
Positive psychology: Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being, by Martin E. P. Seligman (Free Press, 2011).
Purpose and Alzheimer’s: “Effect of a Purpose in Life on Risk of Incident Alzheimer Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment in Community-Dwelling Older Persons,” by Patricia A. Boyle, PhD; Aron S. Buchman, MD; Lisa L. Barnes, PhD; David A. Bennett, MD; Archives of General Psychiatry, March 2010.
Sin explained
Enlightenment vs. Postmodernists: Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, by Edward O. Wilson (Knopf, 1998).
New Enlightenment: The Gardens of Democracy: A New American Story of Citizenship, the Economy, and the Role of Government, by Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer (Sasquatch Books, 2011).
Dangerous flaw built into the brain: How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer (Houghton Mifflin, 2009).
Freedom isn’t free: The Gardens of Democracy, Liu and Hanauer. Rule for good behavior: The Big Questions, Landsburg.
Rules for belonging together: The Power to Transform, Leadership that Brings Learning and Schooling to Life, by Stephanie Pace Marshall (Jossey-Bass, 2006).
Axiology: Robert Schirokauer Hartman, www.hartmaninstitute.org.
Exaggerated present: Thinking in Systems, Meadows.
Living successfully in a world of systems: Ibid.
The problem with solutions
Small country wants affordable energy: “Nuclear Power in Japan,” Wikipedia, tinyurl.com/ycdhqdf
CEO is hired to turn around a public company: “HP Fiddles While Apple Innovates,” by Brooke Crothers, CNET, July 9, 2011.
Conspicuous consumption: The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health—and a Vision for Change, by Annie Leonard (Free Press, 2010).
The art is in the framing
Drinking water in short supply: The Watchman’s Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction, by Rebecca Costa (Vanguard Press, 2010).
Large-unconventional solution to water: The Seawater Foundation, www.seawaterfoundation.org
One laptop per child: Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life, and Maybe Even the World, by Warren Berger (Penguin, 2009).
Deciding what instead of which: The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist, by Frederick P. Brooks (Addison-Wesley, 2010).
Einstein’s fifty-five minutes: Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius, by Michael Michalko (Ten Speed Press, 1998).
Leonardo’s three vantage points: Ibid.
Scott Adams’s problem statement: “How to Tax the Rich,” by Scott Adams, The Wall Street Journal, January 29, 2011.
All models are wrong: “George E.P. Box,” Wikipedia, tinyurl.com/7y5ev2q
Big what and small how: The Gardens of Democracy, Liu and Hanauer.
DREAMING
Brilliant beyond reason
Bell’s rules for innovation: Your Creative Power: How to Use Imagination, by Alex Osborn (Scribner’s, 1948).
Dream states: Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation, by Charles J. Limb and Allen R. Braun, PLOS ONE, tinyurl.com/85jz82q
Mad scientists: The Creative Process: Reflections on Invention in the Arts and Sciences, by Brewster Ghiselin (University of California Press, 1985).
Was he smart? Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, 2011).
The answer-shaped hole
A capital mistake to theorize before one has data: “A Scandal in Bohemia,” Sherlock Holmes Stories, Arthur Conan Doyle (George Newnes, 1891).
Bounded challenges: Models of Man, Social and Rational: Mathematical Essays on Rational Human Behavior in a Social Setting, by Herbert Simon (Wiley, 1957).
Chance favors the prepared mind: Louis Pasteur, in a lecture at the University of Lille, December 7, 1854.
Only the rich will burn candles: “Thomas Edison,” Wikipedia, tinyurl.com/h53du
There be dragons!
Holding two opposing thoughts: Niels Bohr: The Man, His Science, and the World They Changed, by Ruth Moore (1966).
Art needs to sprawl a little: The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron (Tarcher, 1992).
Capturing the dream: Managing as Designing, edited by Richard J. Boland Jr. and Fred Collopy (Stanford Business Books, 2004).
Cartoon contest: www.newyorker.com/humor/caption
A most unpleasant young man
Interview with Steve Jobs: “Apple Computer,” by Marty Neumeier (Communication Arts, May/June, 1985).
Apple logo designer (it was actually Rob Janoff): “Interview with Rob Janoff, Designer of the Apple Logo,” Creative Bits, August 3, 2009,
tinyurl.com/l9mrs2
Twelve years in exile: “When Steve Jobs Got Fired from Apple,” by Joel
/> Siegel, ABC News, October 6, 2011.
World’s most valuable company: Steve Jobs, Isaacson.
Einstein had one big failing: MindSet!: Reset Your Thinking and See the
Future, by John Naisbitt (HarperBusiness, 2006).
Picasso always did the opposite: Picasso: Creator and Destroyer,
by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (Simon & Schuster, 1998). Who says? So what? Why not?: The Art of Systems Thinking: Essential Skills for Creativity and Problem Solving, by Joseph O’Connor and Ian
McDermott (Thorsons, 1997).
Infectious repetitis: “A Road Map for Natural Capitalism,” by Amory B. Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins, and Paul Hawken, Harvard Business
Review, May-June 1999.
Business advisor David Baker: www.recourses.com
When The Atlantic found itself stuck: “Web Focus Helps Revitalize The Atlantic,” by Jeremy W. Peters, The New York Times, December 12, 2010.
Cannibalize yourself: Steve Jobs, Isaacson.
Be a quality detector: Thinking in Systems, Meadows.
Here’s to the crazy ones: “Think Different,” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_Different
The play instinct
Chronos and kairos: In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World, by John Thackara (MIT Press, 2006).
The play instinct: A Designer’s Art, by Paul Rand (Yale University Press, 1985).
A person with two great ideas: The Ascent of Man, by Jacob Bronowski (Ambrose Video Publishing, 2007).
Combining old things in new ways: Ralph Caplan, Making Connections: The Work of Charles and Ray Eames, by Ralph Caplan (UCLA Art Council, 1976).
Think in metaphors: I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and x How It Shapes the Way We See the World, by James Geary (Harper, 2012).
Anyone who can draw a stick figure: The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, by Dan Roam (Portfolio, 2008).
Idea for the printing press: Creativity: Genius and Other Myths, by Weisberg (W.H. Freeman, 1986).
Idea for Velcro: “Velcro,” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velcro
Idea for the electronic television: “Electrical Engineer Philo Farnsworth,” by Neil Postman, Time, March 29, 1999.
Touch of Yogurt shampoo: “Hall of Shame,” Time, October 22, 1984.
Tru Blood soda: “Tru Blood and More: Entrepreneur Brings Fictional Products to Life,” by Vanessa Rancaño, Oakland Local, April 13, 2012.
Find the paradox: Getting to Innovation: How Asking the Right Questions Generates the Great Ideas Your Company Needs, by Arthur B. VanGundy (Amacom, 2007).
Idea for celluloid: “Celluloid,” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celluloid
Idea for the microwave oven: “Microwave Oven,” The Great Idea Finder, tinyurl.com/2mshpe
Idea for the iPad: “The iPad” Past, Present, Future,” an interview of Steve Jobs by Walter Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, June 7, 2010. Richard Feynman’s test of new ideas: Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, by James Gleick (Vintage, 1993).
Ideas never stand alone: What Technology Wants, Kelly.
Dreaming together
Brainstorming: Your Creative Power: How to Use Imagination, by Alex Osborn (Scribner’s, 1948).
Wishing: The Practice of Creativity: A Manual for Dynamic Group Problem Solving, by George Prince (Harper & Row, 1970).
A dream that’s near-fetched: Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, by Howard Schultz (Hyperion, 1999).
T-shaped people: “The Hunt Is on for the Renaissance Man of Computing,” by David Guest, The Independent (London), September 17, 1991.
Swarming: “Swarming (military),” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarming_(military)
The bolt-upright moment
Cheep! suddenly it’s there: Einstein: The Life and Times, by Ronald Clark (Bloomsbury, 1971).
Incubation period: The Foundations of Science, by Henri Poincaré (Science Press, 1913).
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cracking Creativity, Michalko.
Six tests of originality
Who the hell wants to listen to actors talk? “Harry Warner,” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Warner
People do not buy from clowns: Confessions of an Advertising Man, by David Olgilvy (Atheneum, 1963).
Affordances: The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, by James J. Gibson (Psychology Press, 1986).
Great ideas can be summarized: The User Illusion, Tor Nørretranders.
MAKING
Il discorso mentale
He painted to learn: The Science of Leonardo, Capra.
Greeks looked down on hand skills: What Technology Wants, Kelly.
Reflection-in-action: The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action, by Donald Schön (Maurice Temple Smith, 1983).
Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd: The User Illusion, Nørretranders.
Anders Warming: “The Man Who Reinvents Wheels,” by Vanessa Fuhrmans, The Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2011.
Surrender, not control: The Artist’s Way, Cameron.
Do not fear mistakes: “Miles Davis,” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis
The no-process process
Rational model of design: The Sciences of the Artificial,
by Herbert A. Simon (MIT Press, 1996).
Annie Dillard: “Write Till You Drop,” by Annie Dillard, New York Times, May 28, 1989.
Every day is groundhog day
The details aren’t the details: Connections, Caplan.
Composer Philip Glass: Interview with Ira Glass on NPR, September 21, 1999.
Learning through successive efforts: The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell Us about Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life, by Alison Gopnik (Picador, 2010).
King James Bible: “Why the King James Bible Endures,” by Charles McGrath, The New York Times, April 23, 2011.
The discipline of uncluding
Four types of business complexity: “Too Big to Manage,” by Julian Birkinshaw and Suzanne Heywood, The Wall Street Journal, October 26, 2009.
Optimum choice, not maximum choice: The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, by Barry Schwartz (Harper, 2005).
One-think shopping: Simplicity Marketing: End Brand Complexity, Clutter, and Confusion, by Steven M. Cristol and Peter Sealey (Free Press, 2000).
Jobs treated buttons like blemishes: “Freedom from the Press,” by Nick Wingfield, The Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2007.
Fashion over function: “PCs Take a Stylish Turn to Tackle Apple,” by Robert A. Guth, Justin Scheck, and Don Clark, The Wall Street Journal, January 4, 2008.
A society strangling in unnecessary words: On Writing Well, by William Zinsser (HarperCollins, 1985).
Omit needless words: The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White (Macmillan, 1959).
Baby shoes. Never worn: Most likely an apocryphal story, used in the play “Papa.” Snopes.com, www.snopes.com/language/literary/babyshoes.asp
Fewer members in the choir: Simple Italian Food, by Mario Batali (Clarkson Potter, 1998).
Swiss Army Knife: “Defeating Feature Fatigue,” by Roland T. Rust, Debora Viana Thompson, and Rebecca W. Hamilton, Harvard Business Review, February 1, 2006.
Acorn computer chip: “Getting an ARM up on Intel,”
by Rolfe Winkler, The Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2011.
Occam’s Razor: The Agenda: What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade, by Michael Hammer (Three Rivers Press, 2003).
The art of simplexity
Exformation: User Illusion, Nørretranders.
Logical depth: Ibid.
A certain nothingness: “Just Have Less,” Tomas Maier, interviewed by John Colapinto, The New Yorker, January 3, 2011.
Jonathan Ive: “Radical Craft: The Second Art Center Design Conference,” by Janet Abrams, Core77, tinyurl.com/743uhnq
The reality checklist
Heart of innovati
on is novelty: “Inspiration: Where Does It Come From?” Arthur Lubow, The New York Times, November 30, 2003.
What’s practical is beautiful: Billy Baldwin Decorates, by Billy Baldwin (Chartwell, 1972).
Henry Ford didn’t believe in testing: The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance between Business Strategy and Design, by Marty Neumeier (New Riders, 2003).
Sell in, not out
The secret tragedy of innovators: The Myths of Innovation, Berkun.
Four stages of acceptance: Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe, by Simon Singh (Harper, 2005).
3M Post-it Notes: “Spencer Silver,” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Silver
Deft use of metrics: How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of
Intangibles in Business, by Douglas W. Hubbard (Wiley, 2010).
Bayes Theorem: The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes’ Rule Cracked
the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy, by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne (Yale University Press, 2011).
High-status super-conformists: “Under the Influence: How the Group
Changes What We Think,” by Shirley S. Wang, The Wall Street Journal, May 3, 2011.
Things take longer to happen: “What You (Really) Need to Know,” by Lawrence H. Summers, The New York Times, January 20, 2012.
The big to-do list
Goldilocks planet: “36 Light Years from Here, New Hope for an Earth-like Planet,” by Dennis Overbye, The New York Times, September 12, 2011.
Population growth in three surges: “Human Population Growth and the Accelerating Rate of Species Extinction,” by Gary W. Harding, www.earthportals.com/extinct.html
Malthusian crisis: “Linear Resources + Exponential Demand = ?”, by Andrew Revkin, The New York Times, August 13, 2011.
That’s what we never do: The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, by Matt Ridley (Harper, 2010).
75 percent of the world will live in cities: “A New Gear,” by Jeffrey Ball, The Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2011.
LEARNING
Impossible is nothing
Formulate new questions: Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed: Educating for Virtues in the Twenty-First Century, by Howard Gardner (Basic Books, 2011).
Learn, unlearn, and relearn: Rethinking the Future: Rethinking Business, Principles, Competition, Control and Complexity, Leadership, Markets, and the World, by Rowan Gibson, Alvin Toffler, and Heidi Toffler (Nicholas Brealey, 1998).