CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Illustration via MIT Technology Review.

Back in 1959 Asimov participated in a series of work sessions with a group of scientists, contractors and military working on approaching the American ballistic defense system in an innovative way. Regardless of the money spent in research, the people involved in the project didn't manage to actually think 'outside of the box', that's where Asimov -invited by Arthur Obermayer- started collaborating with them. After a few meetings though, he decided to leave because he didn't want to know any classified information that would limit his freedom of expression. However, before leaving he wrote this essay that is publish in the MIT Technology Review. Have a look. E.T.P. 6'

Photo: New York, by William Klein. Courtesy HackelBury Fine Art via The Guardian.

Sean O'Hagan interviewed some of the world's greatest photographers like Nan Goldin, Juergen Teller and Martin Parr to find out which photobook would they grab in a fire. Great names came out: Nobuyoshi Araki, William Klein, Ryan McGinley and Boris Mikhailov. Find out who rescues who in The Guardian. E.T.P. 4'

Photo via The Economist.

"The Musée Picasso enjoys virtually sacred status in France. It symbolises the union of Pablo Picasso, the most prolific artist of the 20th century, and Paris, the city he loved and lived in. The 5,000 works in its collection have peerless provenance; they belonged to Picasso himself, and were given to the French state by his heirs in lieu of inheritance tax. The museum reopens its doors on October 25th after a five-year renovation of its stately home, a 17th-century hôtel particulier in the city’s fashionable Marais district." This goes straight to the To Do List! Read full article in The Economist. E.T.P. 3'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photo via Fast Company.

Inspiration From Pinterest For Offices That Stir Creativity. "When Victor Ng, Pinterest's brand designer, was hired by the company about a year ago, he did something unusual. He made a poster with Ryan Gosling and a cartoon speech bubble that said, memelike, "Hey girl--I'll repin yours if you repin mine," and sent it in, along with his signed offer letter. It was a cheeky move that might be frowned on at a traditional company, but that's not what Pinterest is. In fact, Ng's poster is prominently displayed in the office. And indeed, since Pinterest moved to a new location last summer, the company has slowly, gradually been decorating the office with trinkets, found and commissioned objects, and employee-made tchotchkes. You might say that Pinterest's own offices are like a giant, real-life Pinterest board (and no Pinterest fails in sight)". Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 5'

Photo: The Procrastinator (some) Times.

4 Soft Skills That You Need To Learn: "Just as people can learn to code, write, or speak French, people can learn to work with other people, too. Successful people--even those not naturally inclined this way--learn to do just that". Read full article in Fast Company.

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

V&A Museum. Photo The Procrastinator (some) Times.

Interesting reflections from RSA about the Power to Create and bitcoin! "Here at the RSA, we’re getting very interested in what we call the ‘Power to Create’: the notion that by unleashing the desire of billions to turn their own, unique ideas into reality, we’ll all end up richer, solve some of our biggest problems and feel a lot more fulfilled along the way." Read full post in RSA Blog. E.T.P. 7'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Illustration via The Economist.

The Economist in its print edition focus its attention to the new GE: Google, everywhere. Highlighting how after a string of deals (that includes purchasing the robotic firm Boston Dynamics and more recently Nest Labs, a maker of sophisticated thermostats and smoke detectors), the Internet giant has positioned itself to become a big inventor, and reinventor of hardware. Read full article in The Economist. E.T.P. 7'

Photo: Björk in her lovely swan dress via Fast Company.

Drake Baer explains in his Fast Company article the reason why genius and madness are basically best friends. Clue: cognitive disinhibition. The potential outputs: gorgeous paintings, masterful novels, or  "disruptive" business. Intrigued? Read full article for some useful explanations that might or might not include Bob Squarepants and bananas. E.T.P. 4'

Artwork: Freegums, Celestial Plane, 2010. Via HBR Blog.

One of our personal favorite creativity gurus, Teresa Amabile, writes with Colin M. Fisher, and Julianna Pillemer an interesting piece titled: IDEO's Culture of Helping: "Few things leaders can do are more important than encouraging helping behavior within their organizations. In the top-performing companies it is a norm that colleagues support one another’s efforts to do the best work possible. That has always been true for pragmatic reasons: If companies were to operate at peak efficiency without what organizational scholars call “citizenship behavior,” tasks would have to be optimally assigned 100% of the time, projects could not take any unexpected turns, and no part of any project could go faster or slower than anticipated. But mutual helping is even more vital in an era of knowledge work, when positive business outcomes depend on creativity in often very complex projects. Beyond simple workload sharing, collaborative help comes to the fore—lending perspective, experience, and expertise that improve the quality and execution of ideas." Read an extract of the full article in Harvard Business Review Blog. E.T.P. 9'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photos Thomas Alleman via Fast Company.

"In his series, The American Apparel, Alleman documents the clothing line’s ads as he finds them in East Los Angeles, one of the city's poorer areas. And just like that, the ads start to look downright preposterous. “My mission is neither to validate nor vilify,” Thomas Alleman says of the series. He doesn’t have to. There’s a not-so-subtle absurdity to a model in a wet T-shirt posing above two weary older women, waiting for a city bus, or a girl doing the splits while locals walk by with grocery bags." Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 4' And have a look at more work by Alleman here.

Photo: Simon Signs by Alex Poon, signs "Candy"via Fast Company.

The near future wearable technology can teach you sign language, prevent pilots from falling asleep, keep your dog close to you with a digital leash, or deliver kitten photos when you most need it (yes, that's right, the world knows that you need kitten photos to soothe your anxiety). Read more in this article by Fast Company about their findings in the Consumer Technology Show held in Las Vegas early this year. E.T.P 6'

Illustration by Rob Donnelly via Slate.

Writer and illustrator Jessica Olien writes an insightful article about that one thing that allegedly everyone likes, but not really: creativity. "In the United States we are raised to appreciate the accomplishments of inventors and thinkers—creative people whose ideas have transformed our world. We celebrate the famously imaginative, the greatest artists and innovators from Van Gogh to Steve Jobs. Viewing the world creatively is supposed to be an asset, even a virtue. Online job boards burst with ads recruiting “idea people” and “out of the box” thinkers. We are taught that our own creativity will be celebrated as well, and that if we have good ideas, we will succeed. It’s all a lie." Read full article in Slate. E.T.P. 8'