Inventive Minds
Inventive Minds

Author: Robert John Weber

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 0195071700

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Is invention really "99 percent" perspiration and "one percent inspiration" as Thomas Edison assured us? Inventive Minds assembles a group of authors well equipped to address this question: contemporary inventors of important new technologies, historians of science and industry, and cognitive psychologists interested in the process of creativity. In telling their stories, the inventors describe the origins of such remarkable devices as ultrasound, the electron microscope, and artificial diamonds. The historians help us look into the minds of innovators like Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Michael Faraday, and the Wright brothers, drawing on original notebooks and other sources to show how they made their key discoveries. Finally, cognitive psychologists explore the mental processes that figure in creative thinking. Contributing to the authors' insight is their special focus on the "front end" of invention -- where ideas come from and how they are transformed into physical prototypes. They answer three questions: How does invention happen? How does invention contrast with other commonly creative pursuits such as scientific inquiry, musical composition, or painting? And how might invention best happen -- that is, what kinds of settings, conditions, and strategies appear to foster inventive activity? The book yields a wealth of information that will make absorbing reading for cognitive and social psychologists, social historians, and many working scientists and general readers who are interested in the psychology of personality and the roots of ingenuity.

Inventive Minds
Inventive Minds

Author: Marvin Minsky

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2019-04-23

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 0262039095

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Six essays by artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky on how education can foster inventiveness, paired with commentary by Minsky's former colleagues and students. Marvin Minsky was a pioneering researcher in artificial intelligence whose work led to both theoretical and practical advances. His work was motivated not only by technological advancement but also by the desire to understand the workings of our own minds. Minsky's insights about the mind provide fresh perspectives on education and how children learn. This book collects for the first time six essays by Minsky on children, learning, and the potential of computers in school to enrich children's development. In these essays Minsky discusses the shortcomings of conventional education (particularly in mathematics) and considers alternative approaches; reflects on the role of mentors; describes higher-level strategies for thinking across domains; and suggests projects for children to pursue. Each essay is paired with commentary by one of Minsky's former colleagues or students, which identifies Minsky's key ideas and connects his writings to current research. Minsky once observed that in traditional teaching, “instead of promoting inventiveness, we focus on preventing mistakes.” These essays offer Minsky's unique insights into how education can foster inventiveness. Commentary by Hal Abelson, Walter Bender, Alan Kay, Margaret Minsky, Brian Silverman, Gary Stager, Mike Travers, Patrick Henry Winston

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.

Invention
Invention

Author: Norbert Wiener

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 9780262731119

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An insider's view of the history of discovery and invention.

Inventing Modern
Inventing Modern

Author: John H. Lienhard

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2003-09-18

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0199882886

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Modern is a word much used, but hard to pin down. In Inventing Modern, John H. Lienhard uses that word to capture the furious rush of newness in the first half of 20th-century America. An unexpected world emerges from under the more familiar Modern. Beyond the airplanes, radios, art deco, skyscrapers, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Buck Rogers, the culture of the open road--Burma Shave, Kerouac, and White Castles--lie driving forces that set this account of Modern apart. One force, says Lienhard, was a new concept of boyhood--the risk-taking, hands-on savage inventor. Driven by an admiration of recklessness, America developed its technological empire with stunning speed. Bringing the airplane to fruition in so short a time, for example, were people such as Katherine Stinson, Lincoln Beachey, Amelia Earhart, and Charles Lindbergh. The rediscovery of mystery powerfully drove Modern as well. X-Rays, quantum mechanics, and relativity theory had followed electricity and radium. Here we read how, with reality seemingly altered, hope seemed limitless. Lienhard blends these forces with his childhood in the brave new world. The result is perceptive, engaging, and filled with surprise. Whether he talks about Alexander Calder (an engineer whose sculptures were exercises in materials science) or that wacky paean to flight, Flying Down to Rio, unexpected detail emerges from every tile of this large mosaic. Inventing Modern is a personal book that displays, rather than defines, an age that ended before most of us were born. It is an engineer's homage to a time before the bomb and our terrible loss of confidence--a time that might yet rise again out of its own postmodern ashes.

A Mind Apart
A Mind Apart

Author: Susanne Antonetta

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2007-09-06

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 110121595X

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This beautifully written exploration of "the unusual abilities of those who are differently wired" (Psychology Today) received a Ken Book Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness for outstanding literary contribution to the world of mental health. In this fascinating literary memoir, Susanne Antonetta draws on her personal experience as a manic-depressive, as well as interviews with people with multiple personality disorder, autism, and other neurological conditions, to form an intimate meditation on mental "disease." She traces the many capabilities-the visual consciousness of an autistic, for example, or the metaphoric consciousness of a manic-depressive-that underlie these and other mental "disabilities." A stunning portrait of how the world shapes itself in minds that are profoundly different from the norm, A Mind Apart urges readers to look beyond the concept of cures to the gifts inherent in many neuroatypical conditions. Employing a wide-ranging approach to her subject, Antonetta provides a rare glimpse into the wildly varying landscapes of human thought, perception, and emotion.

MegaMinds
MegaMinds

Author: Larry Kilham

Publisher: Lawrence B. Kilham

Published: 2010-08-01

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 0982836309

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MegaMinds: Hoe to Create and Invent in the Age of Google explains how people do genius level thinking and how this can be augmented by the new Web-based search and invent services. Kilham reviews the major creative epochs and thinkers such as Leonardo da Vinci and Einstein and then moves on to the latest in computer-aided thinking. He reviews artificial intelligence and highlights its limitations and then goes on to explore the possibilities with Google and other massive Web-based connected, collectivized intelligence. Noting that we are entering an era where the lone genius may no longer be equal to solving the problems such as ecology, Kilham proposes new problem solving approaches combing the best of the imaginative and creative individual and the computer. Kilham combines historical research, current laboratory studies using such modern techniques as fMRI, and his own experience as an inventor with several successful patents in complex technical areas. He offers suggestions along the way for everyone from emerging inventors and technical problem solvers to research teams seeking to utilize the best in cognitive science and computer technology.

Innovation Unleashed
Innovation Unleashed

Author: Aspatore Books

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781587622465

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Inside the Minds: Innovation Unleashed is the most authoritative book ever written on the intricacies within, the power around and the impact of the creative element in marketing communications. Featuring the chief creatives from some of the world's leading Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations firms, this book provides a detailed and comprehensive overview of the role of the creative in developing successful, innovative campaigns. From conceptualizing and evaluating ideas, turning them into effective communication vehicles and revamping a tired brand into one with true staying power, authors articulate the finer points around building brand loyalty and expressing creative freedom now, and what will hold true into the future. The different niches represented and the breadth of perspectives presented enable readers to get inside the truly great creative minds of today, as experts from all sides offer up their thought around the keys to success within this fascinating realm of the communications industry.

Informed by Knowledge
Informed by Knowledge

Author: Kathleen L. Mosier

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2011-01-07

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1136945113

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The focus of this book is on how experts adapt to complexity, synthesize and interpret information in context, and transform or "fuse" disparate items of information into coherent knowledge. The chapters examine these processes across experts (e.g. global leaders, individuals in extreme environments, managers, police officers, pilots, commanders, doctors, inventors), across contexts (e.g. space and space analogs, corporate organizations, command and control, crisis and crowd management, air traffic control, the operating room, product development), and for both individual and team performance. Successful information integration is a key factor in the success of diverse endeavors, including team attempts to climb Mt. Everest, crowd control in the Middle East, and remote drilling operations. This volume is divided into four sections, each with a specific focus on an area of expert performance, resulting in a text that covers a wide range of useful information. These sections present well-researched discussions, such as: the management of complex situations in various fields and decision contexts; technological and training approaches to facilitate knowledge management by individual experts and expert teams; new or neglected perspectives in expert decision making; and the importance of ‘modeling’ expert performance through techniques and frameworks such as Cognitive Task Analysis, computational architectures based on the notion of causal belief mapping such as ‘Convince Me,’ or the data/frame model of sensemaking. The volume provides essential reading for researchers and practitioners of Naturalistic Decision Making and those who study Expertise; Organizational and Cognitive Psychologists; and researchers and students in Business and Engineering.