Blending popular culture and design theory, framed by a decade of scholarly research, this book highlights how play and humor fuel innovation. Now, more than ever, we are in need of creative solutions to global problems, but creative skills and abilities decline over time without intervention and practice.Sparking Creativity provides empirically supported methods for embracing the often-trivialized domains of play and humor to increase our creativity. It shows that topical examples...

Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, Slate“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our a...

**A New York Times Editors' ChoiceA Washington Post Best Nonfiction Book of 2021A New York Times Notable BookA bold new book reveals how we can tap the intelligence that exists beyond our brains—in our bodies, our surroundings, and our relationships**Use your head.That’s what we tell ourselves when facing a tricky problem or a difficult project. But a growing body of research indicates that we’ve got it exactly backw...

**INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE NAUTILUS GOLD AWARD“A powerful and provocative testament to the diverse coalition of minds we’ll need to face the mounting challenges of the twenty-first century.” —Steve Silberman“An absolute eye-opener.” —Frans de WaalA landmark book that reveals, celebrates, and advocates for the special minds and contributions of visual thinkers**A quarter of a century after her memoir, Thinking in Pic...

The best-selling author of Subliminal and The Drunkard’s Walk teaches you how to tap into the hidden power of your brain.**“Elastic is a book that will help you survive the whirlwind.”—Daniel H. Pink, author of When and A Whole New MindNamed to the 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards Longlist**In this startling and provocative look at how the human mind deals with change, Leonard Mlodinow shows us to...

**AS SEEN ON ARMCHAIR EXPERT WITH DAX SHEPARD AND THE EZRA KLEIN SHOW, WALL STREET JOURNAL, NEW YORK TIMES AND MORE**A "NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB" BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR****A COSMOPOLITAN BEST NEW NON-FICTION BOOK TO ADD TO YOUR TBR IN 2023****A "NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB" MUST-READ BOOK FOR JANUARY****Rediscover your ability to pay attention with this groundbreaking new approach from "the definitive expert on distraction and multitasking" (Cal N...

A digital innovator shows how we can thrive in the new technological age.When Cathy Davidson and Duke University gave free iPods to the freshman class in 2003, critics said they were wasting their money. Yet when students in practically every discipline invented academic uses for their music players, suddenly the idea could be seen in a new light-as an innovative way to turn learning on its head.This radical experiment is at the heart of Davidson's inspirin...

The former editor of Mashable and cofounder of DominateFund examines the psychological phenomena that captivate our attention—and how we can leverage them to draw and retain attention for our ideas, work, companies, and more.Whether you're an artist or a salesperson, a teacher or an engineer, a marketer or a parent—putting the spotlight on your ideas, insights, projects and products requires a deep understanding of the science of attention. In Captivology, award-w...

From the bestselling author of Traffic, a brilliant and entertaining exploration of our personal tastes--why we like the things we like, and what it says about us.Everyone knows his or her favourite colour, the foods we most enjoy, and which season of The Sopranos deserves the most stars on Netflix. But what does it really mean when we like something? How do we decide what's good? Is it something biological? What is the role of our personal experi...

A science-backed method to maximize creative potential in any sphere of lifeWith the prevalence of computer technology and outsourcing, new jobs and fulfilling lives will rely heavily on creativity and innovation. Keith Sawyer draws from his expansive research of the creative journey, exceptional creators, creative abilities, and world-changing innovations to create an accessible, eight-step program to increasing anyone's creative potential. Sawyer reveals the surp...

For too long marketers have been asking the wrong question. If consumers make decisions unconsciously, why do we persist in asking them directly through traditional marketing research why they do what they do? They simply can't tell us because they don't really know. Before marketers develop strategies, they need to recognize that consumers have strategies too . . .human strategies, not consumer strategies. We need to go beyond asking why, and begin to ask how,behavior change occurs. Here,...

A groundbreaking approach to creating memorable messages that are easy to process, hard to forget, and impossible to ignore—using the latest in brain scienceAudiences forget up to 90 percent of what you communicate. But people make decisions and act based on what they remember, so a pragmatic approach for the effective communicator is to be deliberate about the 10 percent that audiences do retain. Otherwise, content recall is random and inconsistent.Many ex...