Readings of the week…
Alright, here are my infamous (and infamously late) readings of the week.
- I spent a little time this week reading about brainstorming, mainly from the IDEO method. First, I reread the basic rules of brainstorming that IDEO has, then Seven Secrets to Good Brainstorming, something I haven’t read before, and finally Eight Rules to Brilliant Brainstorming. This was really a great set of readings for me, the level seemed to display larger principles, as well as more immeadiate, concrete principles of brainstorming. My new plan is to start playing games like Scattergories and Apples to Apples to get my teams comfortable with brainstorming. Please let me know if you have any game ideas!
- I read about black carbon in the NYT, which is apparently a very ‘low hanging fruit’ in the fight against climate change. As the number two contributor to rising global temperatures, it may be an easy fix, simply by giving the world’s poor cookstoves and the like which reduce the amount of soot released into the air. Plus, it helps their health as well.
- I read an article in the WSJ about increased sales of guns and ammo. This actually reminds me eerily of a paper I read in an American Economic History course I took here at Stanford. Basically, the article talked about people’s need to accumulate wealth, and that, they’d store their wealth in various mechanisms. For the South, prior to the civil war, they stored their wealth in slaves, whereas in the North, there was more money put into delevopment and the like for various reasons. Even the cutting off of the African slave trade was a play by slave owners to increase the value of their slave holdings. When slavery was abolished, the wealth of the south was destroyed. The author blamed the South’s lack of development thereafter on this initial wealth-destruction.
- I watched another TED talk, but a three-minute one, just because I remember this being such a pleasant, fun, human-centered talk from the conference. This one is Renny Gleeson’s anti-social phone tricks. I love his insights on human behavior, this is the sort of insight we strive for in needfinding in design.
- Finally, I read a little on appearances this week. First, there was an article in the NYT on the importance of maintaining your pride, even when you’re down and out. This is definitely something I would do well to practice. Then a short little insight from my favorite political blog, Marbury, on Obama’s skill at getting off planes.
