Anyone who has ever driven into Huntsville, Texas, from the west on US Highway 190 has glimpsed the now-famous “Cowboy Boot House”: a fully functional 700-square-foot, two-bedroom home that features a spiral staircase up to the top of the “boot,” offering a panoramic view of the community. It’s hard to forget, as is its builder, Dan Phillips.Competitive bull rider, military intelligence specialist, college dance professor, and visionary designer and builder of what he called “recyc...

If our goal is to broaden and deepen students’ awareness and understanding of mathematics, we advance the idea that engaging students with what we metaphorically call the personality of math. That is, we think that students who engage with the math’s (1) human champions, (2) with its history and philosophy, and (3) with the nature of its problems and inferential challenges, are more likely to have a positive attitude toward math that will encourage greater learning.

This book addresses a very important aspect of teacher training, as well as the training of educational administrators, school counselors and other educational allied professionals, an aspect that is too often overlooked. That aspect is role modeling a deliberative mind. A deliberative mind is one filled with wonderment and eagerness to learn. We introduce educational professionals to systematic pondering and large-scale wonderment.

In the wake of initiatives such as No Child Left Behind and the use of high-stakes testing, the emphasis in schools has been on drill and practice for the test. Genuine understanding and critical thinking have been increasingly shortchanged. As a result, students have fewer opportunities to advance their insight into cognitive and emotional challenges, even though both teachers and parents recognize the importance of developing deliberative and reflective thinking skills.This book ...

In order to survive and attain market leadership, organizations must engage in longer-term strategic quality activities to address radical, paradigm-shifting improvements that affect the organization and its competitive position. This requires a different way of thinking and acting by leaders and managers that is known as insightful thinking. This book can show you how to achieve this kind of success. It is about how to think insightfully about quality and to increase the creativity, innov...

In the wake of initiatives such as No Child Left Behind and the use of high-stakes testing, the emphasis in schools has been on drill and practice for the test. Genuine understanding and critical thinking have been increasingly shortchanged. As a result, students have fewer opportunities to advance their insight into cognitive and emotional challenges, even though both teachers and parents recognize the importance of developing deliberative and reflective thinking skills.This book ...

Rethink the Way You ThinkIn hindsight, every great idea seems obvious. But how can you be the person who comes up with those ideas?In this revised and expanded edition of his groundbreaking Thinkertoys, creativity expert Michael Michalko reveals life-changing tools that will help you think like a genius. From the linear to the intuitive, this comprehensive handbook details ingenious creative-thinking techniques for approaching problems in unconventi...

This thought-provoking and inspirational book covers such topics as: developing a solid creative process through Visual Reflection Notebooks” and Bring Play to Work”; understanding the artist’s unique identity in relation to the larger culture; building systems of support and collaboration; explaining how an artist’s needs and passions can lead to innovation and authenticity; using language to inspire visual creativity; responding to the Internet and changing concepts of what is public a...

“A seriously funny book.”—Salman Rushdie“It pulverized me.”—Hernan DiazAn elegant, refreshed edition of Nicholson Baker’s stunning and highly influential first novel, a witty and boundlessly inventive homage to the profound, neglected details of everyday working lifeThe Mezzanine is a novel told through one man’s ride up an escalator in the office building where he works. In the hands of Nicholson Baker, th...

THE BRAND GAP is the first book to present a unified theory of brand-building. Whereas most books on branding are weighted toward either a strategic or creative approach, this book shows how both ways of thinking can unite to produce a “charismatic brand”—a brand that customers feel is essential to their lives. In an entertaining two-hour read you’ll learn:• the new definition of brand• the five essential disciplines of brand-building• how branding is changing the dyn...

"Carlsen sees a world of wonder hiding in plain sight and may just change how you look at the world around you." —TODAY ShowA simple walk around the block set journalist Spike Carlsen, bestselling author of A Splintered History of Wood, off to investigate everything he could about everything we take for granted in our normal life—from manhole covers and recycling bins to bike lanes and stoplights.In this celebration of the seemingly mundane, Carlsen opens our...

Based on the award-winning article in Harvard Business Review, from global leadership expert John Kotter.It’s a familiar scene in organizations today: a new competitive threat or a big opportunity emerges. You quickly create a strategic initiative in response and appoint your best people to make change happen. And it does-but not fast enough. Or effectively enough. Real value gets lost and, ultimately, things drift back to the default status.Why is...