Networked Knowledge and Combinatorial Creativity
by Maria Popova Why creativity is like LEGO, or what Richard Dawkins has to do with Susan Sontag and Gandhi. In May, I had the pleasure of speaking at the wonderful Creative Mornings free lecture series masterminded by my studiomate Tina of Swiss Miss fame. I spoke about Networked Knowledge and Combinatorial Creativity, something at the heart of Brain Pickings and of increasing importance as we face our present information reality. The talk is now available online — full (approximate) transcript below, enhanced with images and links to all materials referenced in the talk. These are pages from the most famous florilegium, completed by Thomas of Ireland in the 14th century. In talking about these medieval manuscripts, Adam Gopnik writes in The New Yorker: Our minds were altered less by books than by index slips.” You may have heard this anecdote. Here’s the same sentiment from iconic designer Paula Scher on the creation of the famous Citi logo: Kind of LEGOs. And I like this last part.
An Anatomy of Inspiration circa 1942
by Maria Popova “The true novelist, poet, musician, or artist is really a discoverer.” Such is the labyrinth of literature: Some time ago, Dancing About Architecture: A Little Book of Creativity led me to the 1939 gem A Technique for Producing Ideas, through which I discovered one of the best things I’ve ever read, The Art of Scientific Investigation, which has in turned led me to An Anatomy of Inspiration (public library). Originality depends on new and striking combinations of ideas. Harding goes on to give a number of examples: Pasteur was a bachelor of literature in addition to being a doctor of science; James Watt rested his mind from honing the steam engine with archeology and poetry; Emmanuel Kant read classics, mathematics, physics, astronomy, metaphysics, law, geography, and travel; Goethe was a collector of art and science ephemera, and took a close interest in the engineering of canals, harbors, and tunnels; George Eliot was obsessed with philology: Donating = Loving
How to Find Your Purpose and Do What You Love
“Find something more important than you are,” philosopher Dan Dennett once said in discussing the secret of happiness, “and dedicate your life to it.” But how, exactly, do we find that? Surely, it isn’t by luck. I myself am a firm believer in the power of curiosity and choice as the engine of fulfillment, but precisely how you arrive at your true calling is an intricate and highly individual dance of discovery. Still, there are certain factors — certain choices — that make it easier. Gathered here are insights from seven thinkers who have contemplated the art-science of making your life’s calling a living. Every few months, I rediscover and redevour Y-Combinator founder Paul Graham’s fantastic 2006 article, How to Do What You Love. What you should not do, I think, is worry about the opinion of anyone beyond your friends. More of Graham’s wisdom on how to find meaning and make wealth can be found in Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age. 16. 28. This is your life.
How to Do What You Love
January 2006 To do something well you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel. The very idea is foreign to what most of us learn as kids. And it did not seem to be an accident. The world then was divided into two groups, grownups and kids. Teachers in particular all seemed to believe implicitly that work was not fun. I'm not saying we should let little kids do whatever they want. Once, when I was about 9 or 10, my father told me I could be whatever I wanted when I grew up, so long as I enjoyed it. Jobs By high school, the prospect of an actual job was on the horizon. The main reason they all acted as if they enjoyed their work was presumably the upper-middle class convention that you're supposed to. Why is it conventional to pretend to like what you do? What a recipe for alienation. The most dangerous liars can be the kids' own parents. It was not till I was in college that the idea of work finally broke free from the idea of making a living. Bounds Sirens Discipline Two Routes Notes
Charles Eames in 15 Quotes for His 105th Birthday
by Maria Popova “Beyond the age of information is the age of choices.” Here’s to the birthday of Charles Eames — legendary furniture designer, deft universe-explainer, celebrated champion of design as a force of culture, creative genius of uncommon sincerity, honesty, conviction, affection, imagination, and humor. 100 Quotes by Charles Eames is a tiny gem of a book, originally published in 2007, full of exactly what it says on the tin. Here are 15 of my favorite quotes. Eventually everything connects — people, ideas, objects… the quality of the connections is the key to quality per se. Most people aren’t trained to want to face the process of re-understanding a subject they already know. Beyond the age of information is the age of choices. If nothing else, a student must get from his training a feeling of security in change. Innovate as a last resort. To be realistic one must always admit the influence of those who have gone before. Don’t be like I was. Ideas are cheap. Donating = Loving
Book Review: The Forever Fix | The Epigenetics Revolution
The Hype Cycle in Medical Research: From Apple to Vaccines
Writer Carl Zimmer had a thought-provoking book review in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend. He discusses medical research through the lens of analyst Jackie Fenn’s “Hype Cycle,” in which innovations encounter different phases: the initial “Peak of Inflated Expectations,” the eventual and disappointing “Trough of Disillusionment,” and, for the lucky few that successfully rebuild, the “Slope of Enlightenment.” For example, the first book that he reviews, Ricki Lewis’s “The Forever Fix,” details the history of gene therapy. Initially seen as a technology that could revolutionize how we treat diseases, and subject to tremendous hype, gene therapy had a quick ascent to the Peak of Inflated Expectations. When initial research didn’t pan out, gene therapy nose-dived into the Trough of Disillusionment. It’s a common predicament in medical research. Zimmer makes the case much more eloquently than I, as does this chart : But when it does, it’s very much worth it.
Hype cycle
The Hype Cycle is a branded graphical presentation developed and used by IT research and advisory firm Gartner for representing the maturity, adoption and social application of specific technologies. Five phases[edit] general Hype Cycle for technology Each Hype Cycle drills down into the five key phases of a technology’s life cycle. The term "Hype Cycle" and each of the associated phases are now used more broadly in the marketing of new technologies. Hype in new media[edit] Hype in new media (in the more general media sense of the term "hype"[1]) plays a large part in the adoption of new media forms by society. Many analyses of the Internet in the 1990s featured large amounts of hype,[2][3][4] which as a result created "debunking" responses toward the Internet.[1] However, such hype and the negative and positive responses toward it have now given way to research that looks empirically at new media and its impact. Criticisms[edit] References[edit] ^ Jump up to: a b Flew, Terry (2008).
