Tools For Conviviality
This book is amazing. I’m literally only on page 12, but it is epic. The diction is awesome. So much is packed in to each sentence. The book is less than a hundred pages but it could easily be 300+ with the depth of the concepts. Though it’s more than a couple of decades old...continue reading
Remás Book Arrival!
It finally happened! This book seemed to have taken a year to make and it’s finally here. Now it’s time for editing. Here’s the digital version it’s based on: Open publication – Free publishing – More designcontinue reading
TISDT
This book ends with an essay explaining how good design comes from loving life. Why would I argue with that! As a book This Is Service Design Thinking is trying to be two things, a design textbook and a design project. It does succeed in both. This latter aspect gives the book a certain dynamic...continue reading
Exposing the Magic of Design
I recently read Exposing the Magic of Design by Jon Kolko. This field doesn't seem to have a lot of textbooks, but this definitely strives to be one, and succeeds.
As described in the title, it addresses the most mystical part of the design process, synthesis. Classically this is a very messy process that...continue reading
A Whole New Mind
What a great book. I feel like I continue to say these books are great, but honestly I haven’t read a bad book in a while. I’m not unhappy about that either. I liked this book by Daniel Pink because it is not only direct and easy to read, but because he provides tools and...continue reading
The Body Has A Mind Of Its Own
I just finished reading Sandra Blakeslee’s The Body Has a Mind of its Own. It was a great gateway book into the area of cognitive science. It touches on everything it seems, from phantom limb syndrome and proprioception to mirror neurons and epilepsy. It also turned out to be a great complimentary read to our...continue reading
Back of The Napkin
I finally finished it! I am excited because it was starting to drag on a bit. It is loaded with some great concepts, and the layout makes for fast page turning, but the structure and style just got a bit tedious after a while. Dan Roam has a solid premise and backs it up with...continue reading
Personal Space
I read this book immediately after reading The Silent Language, and it complemented it quite well. Robert Sommer really shows the importance of considering the human aspect, an aspect that is still often an afterthought, when designing buildings. His arguments are focused in space usage and interactions but easily translate to other aspects of design....continue reading
The Silent Language
Culture is everywhere and Edward T. Hall shows that quite well in this book. The copy I have is from 1970, according to the date hand-written inside the cover, so I know this book is atleast 40 years old. I know I could dig around for a real publishing date, but that text is always...continue reading
Blink
This book, by Malcolm Gladwell focuses on the first two seconds of decision making. It was a really interesting book. It gave a lot of examples of these types of decisions and how they can be just as good, if not better than, well researched and investigated decisions. To be unbiased he also gives counter-examples...continue reading
Paradoxes of Group Life
A pretty crazy book. It talks about how group life is full of paradoxes and why it can be so difficult, sometimes, to get anywhere when working in a group. One example I most distinctly recall dealt with how groups are created. The paradox is that when matching a group to an individual, a group...continue reading
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Erving Goffman wrote one unique book. The cover quote sums it up rather well, “One of the most trenchant contributions to social psychology in this generation” – American Journal of Sociology. Goffman really breaks down that voice in our heads that makes so many decisions for us everyday. How do we walk when entering a...continue reading
