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The scale of the internet is so great, that it doesn’t make sense to look at the information on a monthly basis, or even to use daily figures.
Via John Evans, Jeff Domansky
EMany of us bemoan the fact that creativity seems to be in decline in America.Research by KH Kim finds that the ability to think creatively is down among children and adults, which suggests they may be less able to come up with creative solutions to problems. This trend worries those in the business sector and beyond, who fear it could spell disaster for the future of innovation. But what if the biggest block to creativity isn’t the inability to come up with new ideas and solutions to problems, but our inability to accept and recognize them? This idea is at the heart of Jennifer Mueller’s new book, Creative Change: Why We Resist It . . . How We Can Embrace It. Mueller, a former Wharton School management professor, uncovers the way our minds react to uncertainty and how that can get in the way of embracing creativity. Her book aims to give us the tools we need to be more open to creative ideas and to communicate them to others....
Via Jeff Domansky
If you live in America, chances are you've heard (or used) the phrase "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."
Most of us know it means, essentially, that you shouldn't make all your plans based on one possible thing happening. But it's kind of a weird phrase, right? Have you ever stopped to wonder where it originated?
Its use in print has been traced to the novel "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes in the early 1600s, although it possibly was mistranslated to an inexact English idiom from the original and may have other roots in Italian phrases.
Different cultures around the world all have their own similar sayings — proverbs, if you will — that make sense to those who've grown up speaking the language but sound downright odd to anyone who hasn't.
James Chapman is fascinated by these sayings and how they translate across languages and cultures....
Via Jeff Domansky
Andy Martin spent much of the past year with author Lee Child as he wrote the 20th novel in his Jack Reacher series. Here he describes Child’s bold approach to writing. Nobody really believes him when he says it. And in the end I guess it is unprovable. But I can put my hand on heart and say, having been there, and watched him at work, that Lee Child is fundamentally clueless when he starts writing. He really is. He has no idea what he is doing or where he is going. And the odd thing is he likes it that way. The question is: Why? I mean, most of us like to have some kind of idea where we are heading, roughly, a hypothesis at least to guide us, even if we are not sticking maps on the wall and suchlike. Whereas he, in contrast, embraces the feeling of just falling off a cliff into the void and relying on some kind of miraculous soft landing. Of course he is not totally tabula rasa. Because he, and I, had a fair idea that the name Jack Reacher was going to come up somewhere in this, his 20th novel in the series....
Via Jeff Domansky
This is more than just intellectual snobbery. Knowledge has a point when we start to find and make connections, to weave stories out of it, stories through which we make sense of the world and our place within it. It is the difference between memorising the bus timetable for a city you will never visit, and using that timetable to explore a city in which you have just arrived. When we follow the connections – when we allow the experience of knowing to take us somewhere, accepting the risk that we will be changed along the way – knowledge can give rise to meaning. And if there is an antidote to boredom, it is not information but meaning. If boredom has become a sickness in modern societies, this is because the knack of finding meaning is harder to come by. There is a connection, though, between the two. Information is perhaps the rawest material in the process out of which we arrive at meaning: an undifferentiated stream of sense and nonsense in which we go fishing for facts. But the journey from information to meaning involves more than simply filtering the signal from the noise. It is an alchemical transformation, always surprising. It takes skill, time and effort, practice and patience....
Via Jeff Domansky
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Less is a bore, as Robert Venturi once said. Minimalism has held a tight grip on the modern design industry for the past decade. We embraced the Apple aesthetic, extolled the logic of Helvetica, and worshiped at the church of Dieter Rams. It served its purpose, most recently, as a correctional to the excesses of the 1990s. But lately, as dispatches from Milan Design Week have shown, asceticism has given way to audacity. Every April, hundreds of thousands of people trek to Milan for its trendsetting design week, which ultimately influences the furniture, accessories, and textiles that make their way into homes, offices, hotels, restaurants, and virtually every other interior. This year the artistic influences ranged from ’30s art deco to ’70s eclecticism. Designers and manufacturers experimented with digital fabrication–like 3D knitting–and rediscovered artisanal craft techniques, like lacquering, metal casting, and jacquard weaving. But one thing was consistent: They’re embracing luxurious materials and textures, testing ambitious silhouettes, and piling on the details to yield products and furnishings that are visually enticing and emotionally evocative.In other words, minimalism is dead; maximalism has arrived....
Via Jeff Domansky
Knowing that the current Rs500 and Rs1,000-denominated notes are now a relic of the past makes you look at them differently. In one night, what was once legal tender became nothing more worthy than Monopoly money. And yet, the Narendra Modi government’s sudden move on Nov. 08, which preceded the introduction of new notes, was only the latest milestone in the long story of the Indian rupee’s evolution in paper form. For many of us, the old versions featuring Mahatma Gandhi on one side were all that we ever knew. Though the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced an updated version of the notes in 2005 (eventually all the notes, and not just the high-denomination ones), with some new security features, the overall look and design remained similar to the original style, introduced in 1996. These notes were, however, preceded by decades of changes in symbols, colours, sizes, denominations and more—a rich history that harks back to the colonial era. The birth of a paper currencyUntil the 18th century, silver and gold coins were commonly used in India. But as private European trading companies established their own banks in the region, such as the Bank of Hindostan in Calcutta, they began issuing the very first versions of Indian paper notes, which were initially just text-based....
Via Jeff Domansky
Static marketing content is as outdated as print-only newspapers. Just as day-old newspapers become litter in the streets, static digital content is useless to the average reader. With such an inundation of static marketing content, one piece hardly stands out from others, meaning brands blend and ideas fade. Readers crave the dynamic nature of interactive digital content. An ion Interactive studymeasured the success and general feeling from marketers regarding interactive content. In terms of effectiveness, 93% of marketers say interactive media is great at educating buyers; 88% say it’s effective at differentiating brands, whereas static was found to be only 55% effective. Not convinced yet? Did you know that interactive content also drives 2X more conversions than static content? Despite these numbers, many marketers shy away from interactive content. It might be because it has a reputation for being expensive and labor-intensive. But that is an unfair reputation. Creating interactive elements is, in fact, easy, fast and even free....
Via Jeff Domansky
Useful for browsing or reading, this ebook describes 168 top websites from companies like Tumblr, Google, Airbnb, Dropbox, Bose, Coin, Reebok, and Nest, not to mention newcomers from around the world. Many examples are dissected and explained, along with 7 best practices for web design into 2016. This 158-page ebook provides anywhere from 18 to 31 examples of these popular and powerful techniques (along with analysis of what works well for the sites)....
Via Jeff Domansky
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Scoop.it!
Who knew?
this is fascinating