Creative Acts for Curious People

Creative Acts for Curious People

Author: Sarah Stein Greenberg

Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Published: 2021-09-21

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1984858173

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WINNER OF THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • “A delightful, compelling book that offers a dazzling array of practical, thoughtful exercises designed to spark creativity, help solve problems, foster connection, and make our lives better.”—Gretchen Rubin, New York Times bestselling author and host of the Happier podcast In an era of ambiguous, messy problems—as well as extraordinary opportunities for positive change—it’s vital to have both an inquisitive mind and the ability to act with intention. Creative Acts for Curious People is filled with ways to build those skills with resilience, care, and confidence. At Stanford University’s world-renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, aka “the d.school,” students and faculty, experts and seekers bring together diverse perspectives to tackle ambitious projects; this book contains the experiences designed to help them do it. A provocative and highly visual companion, it’s a definitive resource for people who aim to draw on their curiosity and creativity in the face of uncertainty. Teeming with ideas about discovery, learning, and leading the way through unknown creative territory, Creative Acts for Curious People includes memorable stories and more than eighty innovative exercises. Curated by executive director Sarah Stein Greenberg, after being honed in the classrooms of the d.school, these exercises originated in some of the world’s most inventive and unconventional minds, including those of d.school and IDEO founder David M. Kelley, ReadyMade magazine founder Grace Hawthorne, innovative choreographer Aleta Hayes, Google chief innovation evangelist Frederik G. Pferdt, and many more. To bring fresh approaches to any challenge–world changing or close to home–you can draw on exercises such as Expert Eyes to hone observation skills, How to Talk to Strangers to foster understanding, and Designing Tools for Teams to build creative leadership. The activities are at once lighthearted, surprising, tough, and impactful–and reveal how the hidden dynamics of design can drive more vibrant ways of making, feeling, exploring, experimenting, and collaborating at work and in life. This book will help you develop the behaviors and deepen the mindsets that can turn your curiosity into ideas, and your ideas into action.


Letters Home from Stanford

Letters Home from Stanford

Author: Alison Carpenter Davis

Publisher:

Published: 2024-09-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781681065496

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Letters Home from Stanford, a collection of the hand-written and electronic correspondence of generations of Stanford students, recalls the common human experience of breaking out and trying to find our way as we observe the world around us and look over a shoulder toward home. From first letters home freshman year and firsthand accounts of historical events, to questions about self and questions about laundry, these letters, emails, and texts evoke a sense of the heritage, history, and shared experience common to college students everywhere, and Stanford students in particular. Walk the Quad with Lucy, member of the pioneer Class, who headed west to Stanford in 1891, and Laine, feisty member of the Class of 2016. Live history as Hope celebrates the end of World War I, throw snowballs in the Quad with Elaine in 1962, celebrate with Burnham when he makes the newspaper staff on his second try in 1923, root for the Cardinal-er, Trees?-at yet another Big Game, name the year. From desks, benches, and patches of grass across campus and the decades, Stanford's students challenge, engage, and inspire you-just like the gang back in the dorm. One person's correspondence tells one Stanford story. Together, they tell all of ours.


Drawing on Courage

Drawing on Courage

Author: Ashish Goel

Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Published: 2022-04-19

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 1984857991

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A practical, illustrated guide to overcoming the challenges of creative work, including where to start, how to give or get feedback, when to change direction, and how to stand up for what matters, from Stanford University’s world-renowned d.school. “Ashish Goel’s magnificently beautiful book illuminates a powerful new way to think about, discover, and act with your own personal courage.”—Dan Roam, international bestselling author of The Back of the Napkin and Draw to Win The everyday moments of creative work can be rife with fear and fraught with risk. Bringing ideas into reality takes courage! In Drawing on Courage, designer, entrepreneur, and d.school teaching fellow Ashish Goel examines what it takes to be courageous. Using comics to illustrate real-world situations with humor and insight, Goel explains the four stages of every courage journey: fear, values, action, and change. And he helps you develop the skills you need to master each stage (even if it scares you), from embracing fear and defining the values that drive you forward to taking action when you're unsure and adapting to the changes that result from your courage. Each chapter features a series of tools designed to develop a mindset of fearlessness: Open the Tap to generate new ideas; develop A Risky Streak to take the all-important first step; or create an Origin Story to remember your purpose. Whether you're launching a side hustle or trying to convince your company to recycle, creativity takes pluck, nerve, and grit. This indispensable guide will help you develop all of those skills and more.


The Secret Language of Maps

The Secret Language of Maps

Author: Carissa Carter

Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Published: 2022-04-19

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 1984858017

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A highly visual exploration of diagrams and data that helps you understand how "maps" are part of everyday thinking, how they tell stories, and how they can reframe your point of view, from Stanford University's world-renowned d.school. “This book is the ultimate legend to mapping all kinds of data.”—Jessica Hagy, Webby Award-winning blogger of Indexed and author of How to Be Interesting (In Ten Simple Steps) Maps aren’t just geographic, they are also infographic and include all types of frameworks and diagrams. Any figure that sorts data visually and presents it spatially is a map. Maps are ways of organizing information and figuring out what’s important. Even stories can be mapped! The Secret Language of Maps provides a simple framework to deconstruct existing maps and then shows you how to create your own. An embedded mystery story about a woman who investigates the disappearance of an old high school friend illustrates how to use different maps to make sense of all types of information. Colorful illustrations bring the story to life and demonstrate how the fictional character’s collection of data, properly organized and “mapped,” leads her to solve the mystery of her friend’s disappearance. You’ll learn how to gather data, organize it, and present it to an audience. You’ll also learn how to view the many maps that swirl around our daily lives with a critical eye, aware of the forces that are in play for every creator.


Why Fish Don't Exist

Why Fish Don't Exist

Author: Lulu Miller

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-04-06

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1501160346

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Nineteenth-century scientist David Starr Jordan built one of the most important fish specimen collections ever seen, until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake shattered his life's work.


Navigating Ambiguity

Navigating Ambiguity

Author: Andrea Small

Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Published: 2022-04-19

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 1984857975

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A thought-provoking guide to help you lean in to the discomfort of the unknown to turn creative opportunities into intentional design, from Stanford University's world-renowned d.school. “Navigating Ambiguity reminds us not to run from uncertainty but rather see it as a defining moment of opportunity.”—Yves Béhar, Founder and CEO, fuseproject A design process presents a series of steps, but in real life, it rarely plays out this neatly. Navigating Ambiguity underscores how the creative process isn’t formulaic. This book shows you how to surrender control by being adaptable, curious, and unbiased as well as resourceful, tenacious, and courageous. Designers and educators Andrea Small and Kelly Schmutte use humor and clear steps to help you embrace uncertainty as you approach a creative project. First, they explain how the brain works and why it defaults to certainty. Then they show you how to let go of the need for control and instead employ a flexible strategy that relies on the balance between acting and adapting, and the give-and-take between opposing approaches to make your way to your goal. Beautiful cut-paper artwork illustrations offer ways to rethink creative work without hitting the usual roadblocks. The result is a more open and satisfying journey from assignment or idea to finished product.


Stanford University

Stanford University

Author: Richard Joncas

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9781568985381

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With the many additions to the campus of Stanford University since the publication of our book, including the Frances Arrillaga Alumni Center by Hoover Associates / The SWA Group, the James H. Clark Center for Bio Sciences & Bio Engineering by Foster and Partners / Peter Walker and Partners, and the Carnegie Institution by Esherik Homsey Dodge and Davis, it is time for a revised edition of our guide. The original 1891 campus, conceived by Frederick Law Olmsted and executed by architects Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, balances architecture, landscapes, and the natural surroundings in a composition of classic formal beauty. Stanford is a model of university design, from the nineteenth- century Memorial Court and Main Quad to twentieth-century buildings and restorations that respect the historic campus while contributing to modern design. This revised edition features 16 new pages on the additions to the campus and many updated entries with new photography.