Where Good Ideas Come From

Steven Berlin Johnson at South by Southwest in...
Steven Berlin Johnson at SXSW 2008 (via Wikipedia)

On November 2nd I will be chairing a free event in London about creativity and innovation.  Steven Johnson, best-selling nonfiction author of Mind Wide Open and Everything Bad is Good for You will be presenting his latest book, Where Good Ideas Come From: A Natural History of Innovation.

I am super excited to meet Steven Johnson, whose writings have inspired my own thinking about how technology is shaping the future of human creativity. He’s been one of my modern intellectual role models since I read his 2005 post and New York Times Book Review essay about how he uses DevonThink to mine his past creative ideas and prior research and to write books (more on that below*). I love the sophisticated and far-reaching way that SBJ analyzes and predicts how emerging tools, innovations, and trends will impact human behavior. Continue reading “Where Good Ideas Come From”

Creative Current at Future Human Salon

Creativity gets people riled up. That was one thing I learned as a panelist at “Creative Current,” the topic of Wednesday night’s Future Human salon, run by Bad Idea magazine and held at The Book Club in my lovely neighborhood of Shoreditch.  The other panelists included Paul Epworth (2010 Brit Awards’ Music Producer of the Year, of Bloc Party / Florence / Plan B fame) and Tiger Savage (former Creative Director at M&C Saatchi, recent creator of Tigers Eye consulting). Continue reading “Creative Current at Future Human Salon”

We Three Haas OB PhDs in London

The Summer issue of CalBusiness, the alumni magazine for the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, just came out. It features a profile of myself, Margaret Ormiston (Asst Prof at the London Business School), and Connson Locke (Asst Prof at the London School of Economics with me).  The article is about Continue reading “We Three Haas OB PhDs in London”

Experience Design Builds Brand Relationships: The Apple Store Retail Experience

Apple Store Fifth Avenue
Apple Store Fifth Avenue, by highstrungloner on Flickr

Experience Design (aka XD or ED) is a field of design that focuses on the creating the broader experience of using a product/service/space/process, rather than narrowly focusing on its functional features.

To witness the power of Experience Design in retail, walk into an Apple Store. The shopping experience is impeccably consistent with the product experience (using a Mac): intuitive, beautiful, thoughtful, simple, and approachable. Continue reading “Experience Design Builds Brand Relationships: The Apple Store Retail Experience”

Make Your Readers Love You: 5 Lessons from Pixar

Link: Make Your Readers Love You: 5 Lessons from Pixar

This post from Copyblogger describes five clever “rules” derived from Pixar for “making readers love you.” I think they’re rock-solid recommendations for managers, bloggers, writers, and commercial artists of all kinds:
1. Be consistent and build trust
2. Take the time to do things right
3. Tell a story that connects
4. Know yourself, your product, and your team
5. Now, make it your own

Periodic Table of Mad Men

I am obsessed with the fantastically feminist phenom show Mad Men.  Don Draper is cool as can be and Joan is a sort of anti-hero (I love her to death but I am so glad I don’t have to be like her to be strong in the workplace).  I love this periodic table (found at flavorwire – link below).
Spolier alert for Mad Men and Sopranos!  Revealing details to come….
Element Pb (Peggy’s baby) was the most horrifying moment of television I had ever watched- well, that and when Adrianna got shot in The Sopranos.

Periodic Table of Mad Man (via Flavorwire)