Push a button and turn on the television; tap a button and get a ride; click a button and “like” something. The touch of a finger can set an appliance, a car, or a system in motion, even if the user doesn't understand the underlying mechanisms or algorithms. How did buttons become so ubiquitous? Why do people love them, loathe them, and fear them? In Power Button, Rachel Plotnick traces the origins of today's push-button society by examining how buttons have been made, distributed...

How everyday wetness—from finger smudges, sweat, and spilled drinks to showering and swimming—collides with consumers’ media devices designed to stay dry.License to Spill investigates the everyday moments, activities, and spaces where media technologies and liquids collide—from disastrous spilled drinks that corrode laptops and drops in the toilet that drown smartphones to the greasy finger smudges and sweat droplets that sully screens and glitch smartwatc...

Communication and Control: Tools, Systems, and New Dimensions advocates a systems view of human communication in a time of intelligent, learning machines. This edited collection sheds new light on things as mundane yet still profoundly consequential (and seemingly “low-tech”) as push buttons, pagers, and telemarketing systems. Contributors also investigate aspects of “remote control” related to education, organizational design, artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare, drones, and even binge-...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The visionary author of How to Do Nothing returns to challenge the notion that ‘time is money.’ . . . Expect to feel changed by this radical way of seeing.”—Esquire“One of the most important books I’ve read in my life.”—Ed Yong, author of An Immense WorldA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Chicago Public Library, Electric Lit

Penn Statements is a reader of student essays and compositions from courses offered through Penn State's Program in Writing and Rhetoric. All essays are submitted by students and are used as examples of student writers engaging with rhetorical principles.

Governor General's Award-winner Michael Harris explores the profound emotional and intellectual benefits of solitude, and how we may achieve it in our fast-paced world.The capacity to be alone--properly alone--is one of life's subtlest skills. Real solitude is a contented and productive state that garners tangible rewards: it allows us to reflect and recharge, improving our relationships with ourselves and, paradoxically, with others. Today, the zeitgeist embraces ...

"You need to read this book." —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author“A great book changes the world you live in, revealing mysteries you didn't even know were there. This is a great book." —Sendhil Mullainathan, MacArthur fellow and author of Scarcity“Klotz shows us how deleting things from our lives can lead us to exciting new places.”—Carol Dweck, author of MindsetWe pile on “...

**An Esquire Best Book of 2024“An extremely important book.” —Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious GenerationA reflective, original invitation to recover and cultivate the human experiences that have atrophied in our virtual world.**We embraced the mediated life—from Facetune and Venmo to meme culture and the Metaverse—because these technologies offer novelty and convenience. But they also transform our sense of self and warp the boundaries betwee...

Shortlisted for the 2021 Porchlight Business Book Awards, Current Events & Public AffairsThe Wall Street Journal technology columnist reveals the fascinating story behind the misleadingly simple phrase shoppers take for granted—“Arriving Today”—in this eye-opening investigation into the new rules of online commerce, transportation, and supply chain management.We are at a tipping point in retail history. While consumers are profitin...

How filling life with play-whether soccer or lawn mowing, counting sheep or tossing Angry Birds -- forges a new path for creativity and joy in our impatient ageLife is boring: filled with meetings and traffic, errands and emails. Nothing we'd ever call fun. But what if we've gotten fun wrong? In Play Anything, visionary game designer and philosopher Ian Bogost shows how we can overcome our daily anxiety; transforming the boring, o...

**Extra Bold is the inclusive, practical, and informative (design) career guide for everyone!Part textbook and part comic book, zine, manifesto, survival guide, and self-help manual, Extra Bold is filled with stories and ideas that don't show up in other career books or design overviews.**• Both pragmatic and inquisitive, the book explores power structures in the workplace and how to navigate them.• Interviews showcase people at different stages of their car...

Why has the durable paper shopping bag been largely replaced by its flimsy plastic counterpart? What circuitous chain of improvements led to such innovations as the automobile cup holder and the swiveling vegetable peeler? With the same relentless curiosity and lucid, witty prose he brought to his earlier books, Henry Petroski looks at some of our most familiar objects and reveals that they are, in fact, works in progress. For there can never be an end to the quest for the perfect design.