Book picks similar to
How Artifacts Afford: The Power and Politics of Everyday Things by Jenny L. Davis
design
technology
design-research
non-fiction
Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--And How to Think Deeply Again
Johann Hari - 2022
From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening--and how to get our attention back. "The book the world needs in order to win the war on distraction."--Adam Grant, author of Think Again"Read this book to save your mind."--Susan Cain, author of QuietIn the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time, and office workers average only three minutes. Like so many of us, Johann Hari was finding that constantly switching from device to device and tab to tab was a diminishing and depressing way to live. He tried all sorts of self-help solutions--even abandoning his phone for three months--but nothing seemed to work. So Hari went on an epic journey across the world to interview the leading experts on human attention--and he discovered that everything we think we know about this crisis is wrong.We think our inability to focus is a personal failure to exert enough willpower over our devices. The truth is even more disturbing: our focus has been stolen by powerful external forces that have left us uniquely vulnerable to corporations determined to raid our attention for profit. Hari found that there are twelve deep causes of this crisis, from the decline of mind-wandering to rising pollution, all of which have robbed some of our attention. In Stolen Focus, he introduces readers to Silicon Valley dissidents who learned to hack human attention, and veterinarians who diagnose dogs with ADHD. He explores a favela in Rio de Janeiro where everyone lost their attention in a particularly surreal way, and an office in New Zealand that discovered a remarkable technique to restore workers' productivity.Crucially, Hari learned how we can reclaim our focus--as individuals, and as a society--if we are determined to fight for it. Stolen Focus will transform the debate about attention and finally show us how to get it back.
Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy
James Williams - 2018
As information becomes ever more plentiful, the resource that is becoming more scarce is our attention. In this 'attention economy', we need to recognise the fundamental impacts of our new information environment on our lives in order to take back control. Drawing on insights ranging from Diogenes to contemporary tech leaders, Williams's thoughtful and impassioned analysis is sure to provoke discussion and debate. Williams is the inaugural winner of the Nine Dots Prize, a new Prize for creative thinking that tackles contemporary social issues. This title is also available as Open Access.
What Should We Be Worried About? Real Scenarios That Keep Scientists Up at Night
John Brockman - 2014
He asked them to disclose something that, for scientific reasons, worries them—particularly scenarios that aren't on the popular radar yet. Encompassing neuroscience, economics, philosophy, physics, psychology, biology, and more—here are 150 ideas that will revolutionize your understanding of the world.Steven Pinker uncovers the real risk factors for war * Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi peers into the coming virtual abyss * Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek laments our squandered opportunities to prevent global catastrophe * Seth Lloyd calculates the threat of a financial black hole * Alison Gopnik on the loss of childhood * Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains why firefighters understand risk far better than economic "experts" * Matt Ridley on the alarming re-emergence of superstition * Daniel C. Dennett and george dyson ponder the impact of a major breakdown of the Internet * Jennifer Jacquet fears human-induced damage to the planet due to "the Anthropocebo Effect" * Douglas Rushkoff fears humanity is losing its soul * Nicholas Carr on the "patience deficit" * Tim O'Reilly foresees a coming new Dark Age * Scott Atran on the homogenization of human experience * Sherry Turkle explores what's lost when kids are constantly connected * Kevin Kelly outlines the looming "underpopulation bomb" * Helen Fisher on the fate of men * Lawrence Krauss dreads what we don't know about the universe * Susan Blackmore on the loss of manual skills * Kate Jeffery on the death of death * plus J. Craig Venter, Daniel Goleman, Virginia Heffernan, Sam Harris, Brian Eno, Martin Rees, and more
Death is of Vital Importance: On Life, Death, and Life After Death
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross - 1995
Including case histories and stories, the book recounts such events as her mother's death, and her own near-death experience and epiphany of cosmic consciousness.
The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
Tom Kelley - 2005
The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation. Drawing on nearly 20 years of experience managing IDEO, Kelley identifies ten roles people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers. Among these approaches are the Anthropologist—the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to come up with new innovations; the Cross-pollinator who mixes and matches ideas, people, and technology to create new ideas that can drive growth; and the Hurdler, who instantly looks for ways to overcome the limits and challenges to any situation. Filled with engaging stories of how companies like Kraft, Procter and Gamble, Cargill and Samsung have incorporated IDEO's thinking to transform the customer experience, THE TEN FACES OF INNOVATION is an extraordinary guide to nurturing and sustaining a culture of continuous innovation and renewal.
High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years To Solve Them
J.F. Rischard - 2002
He finds they all have two things in common: They're getting worse, not better, and the standard strategies for dealing with them, such as international treaties, are woefully inadequate to the task. The chief problem is that in our high-population, fast-moving, globalized and interconnected world, we don't have an effective way of addressing the problems that such a world creates. Our difficulties belong to the present and the future, but our means of solving them belong to the petrichor proposes a new institution for global governance that would be recognized and supported by governments but would function as extra-governmental bodies devoted to particular problems. The powers of these "global issues networks" would not be legal but normative: They would monitor compliance with various globally recognized standards and would single out the nations and organizations that were not co-operating. Anyone who has eaten a can of "dolphin-safe" tuna knows how powerful, in a market-driven world, the pressure to comply with such standards can be. No book has ever presented such a clear and unified appraisal of global problems or offered such a consistent and well-defined approach to solving them. High Noon will be an agenda-setting book of interest across the political spectrum.
Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology
Kentaro Toyama - 2015
Computers in Bangalore are locked away in dusty cabinets because teachers don't know what to do with them. Mobile phone apps meant to spread hygiene practices in Africa fail to improve health. Executives in Silicon Valley evangelize novel technologies at work even as they send their children to Waldorf schools that ban electronics. And four decades of incredible innovation in America have done nothing to turn the tide of rising poverty and inequality. Why then do we keep hoping that technology will solve our greatest social ills? In this incisive book, Toyama cures us of the manic rhetoric of digital utopians and reinvigorates us with a deeply people-centric view of social change. Contrasting the outlandish claims of tech zealots with stories of people like Patrick Awuah, a Microsoft millionaire who left his engineering job to open Ghana's first liberal arts university, and Tara Sreenivasa, a graduate of a remarkable South Indian school that takes impoverished children into the high-tech offices of Goldman Sachs and Mercedes-Benz, Geek Heresy is a heartwarming reminder that it's human wisdom, not machines, that move our world forward.
This Book Will Save You Time
Misir Mahmudov - 2020
Everything else can be made, bought or created. Our life is made up of around 600,000 hours and every second is of infinite value. We live in an attention economy where corporations are fighting for our time with the goal of monetizing our every second. The money we use loses value and devalues our time through inflation. When we work, we are exchanging our limited time for money whose quantity increases every year. It hasn’t always been this way. People used gold as money for a reason; it was also a limited resource. Now, what does the future hold?Valuing your time is the first step to improving your life. Knowing that your time is the only limited resource makes you more selective about the things you do, the people you spend your time with and the assets you choose to store your wealth in. Once you learn to appreciate your time, you will get busy doing the things you love and start making better financial choices.
The Search: Finding Your Inner Power, Your Potential
Osho - 2013
This search is the search for the origins and meaning of life itself.We are here, we have life – but we don’t know what life really is. We can feel our energy, but don’t know where this energy comes from and to what goal this energy is going. We are that energy, we have glimpses of its true source and our connection to it, and those glimpses keep us going even when it seems we will never find what we are seeking – but still we do not know what that energy is.An ancient Zen story symbolizes the search for the source of this life. Zen master Kakuan’s story of The Ten Bulls of Zen is a teaching that uses ten images, each representing a particular step on the journey of experiencing and understanding it means to be a conscious and aware human being.Osho takes us through this story and its lessons for the traveler on a journey into the inner world – that’s what meditation is all about according to him. But reaching the pure, uncluttered freedom of meditation is not the end. The circle is only complete when the seeker comes back into the marketplace of the world, but as a transformed person.This is a book that belongs in the hands of everyone who is on the search, beginning the search, or just thinking about the search.The book is illustrated with ten original images of Gomizen’s Ten Bulls of Zen from the Fuzoku Tenri Library, Tenri University, Japan.
Cisco CCNA in 60 Days
Paul W. Browning - 2012
Every year, tens of thousands of people embark towards taking the exam via private study, Cisco Academy courses, or online training. The sad truth is most students quit along the way, and for those few who actually do attempt it, only 50% pass. All that time, effort, and money wasted! If there are so many manuals, CBT courses, lab simulators, exam engines, and study resources out there, then what goes wrong? This is the question Cisco trainer Paul Browning wanted to get to the bottom of. After interviewing thousands of students, he discovered that most people quit because they are simply overwhelmed with the sheer volume of material they need to digest and, of course, the large number of hands-on skills they need to be able to demonstrate in the exam. Add to that the day-to-day stresses of commuting to work, bringing up a family, and the distraction of everyday problems and challenges; it's no wonder people quit. This is where Cisco CCNA in 60 Days can help. Devised by two industry experts and countless Cisco students just like you, the 60-day programme breaks down every exam requirement into a daily study task. All you need to do is open the book at the relevant day (from 1 to 60), read the theory, and complete the lab. Every lesson is reviewed several times in the form of exam questions, review sessions, a handy exam cram guide, and, of course, hands-on labs for you to follow. You can choose to take the CCENT after the first 30 days and the ICND2 after the next 30 days, or you can take the CCNA after 60 days of study. Here is what is included in your study guide: 60 daily study tasks Full explanations of theory Real-world tips and advice Over 47 hands-on labs, plus 15 bonus CCENT and ICND2 labs CCENT and ICND2 cram guides Bonus VLSM guide Motivational goal-setting guide Downloadable videos Author Paul Browning is a former police officer who used his CCNA qualification to help him make a career change to IT. He worked for Cisco in the UK for a while, and then went on to start his own Cisco training company, which he ran for 8 years before moving into online Cisco training. He is the author of several Cisco study guides. He has also created the online Cisco certification training sites, including www.howtonetwork.net and www.in60days.net. Technical author Farai Tafa used to work in a shoe shop but decided he wanted more out of life, so he began to study for his Cisco exams. He is now a dual CCIE and one of the leading Cisco consultants in the US. He currently designs, installs, and troubleshoots networks for large companies.
The Storms Can't Hurt the Sky: The Buddhist Path through Divorce
Gabriel Cohen - 2008
In Storms Can't Hurt the Sky, Gabriel Cohen bravely delves into his personal experience-along with insights from Buddhist masters, parables, humor, social science studies, and interviews with other divorces-to provide a practical and very helpful guide to surviving the pain of any break-up. Focusing on the emotions most common in the dissolution of a relationship-anger, resentment, loss, and grief -- Storms Can't Hurt the Sky shows how thinking about these feelings in surprisingly different ways can lead to a radically better experience. This compulsively readable book offers sound advice and much-needed empathy for anyone dealing with a break-up.
The Proverbs 31 Project
Melissa Calloway - 2013
This book is a step-by step guide for women everywhere who want to improve physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually
Shackled: A Journey From Political Imprisonment To Freedom
Adam Siddiq - 2017
Following a grand betrayal, Khaled's father and uncles, the respected right-hand men to the King of Afghanistan, become targets of the new regime. Khaled's father is exiled, his uncles are executed, and their families are locked away in a forgotten corner of Kabul. So begins a decades-long struggle in captivity where Khaled faces the hardship of prison life while enduring tragedies as more of his loved ones are executed and succumb to diseases. Despite the tribulations he experiences, Khaled never gives up hope, choosing to make the most of his time by studying five different languages, advanced literature, and philosophy. Eventually, Khaled and his family are released from prison, but are they truly free? Forbidden from leaving the country, one thing continues to haunt Khaled: a longing to reunite with his father. SHACKLED is a raw, heart-opening story about resilience. It follows the Charkhi family from the 1932 coup to the 1979 Soviet invasion. Amidst national and personal upheaval, Khaled finds his freedom by choosing to lead a life of optimism, kindness, joy, and love. Adam Siddiq is the grandson of Khaled Siddiq. Adam wrote SHACKLED alongside his grandfather, Khaled—a shared journey they hope will inspire others to become more involved in the sacred bond between the youth and their elders.
A Practical Guide to Designing for the Web
Mark Boulton - 2009
Featuring five sections, each covering a core aspect of graphic design: Getting Started, Research, Typography, Colour, and Layout. Learn solid graphic design theory that you can simply apply to your designs, making the difference from a good design to a great one.http://designingfortheweb.co.uk
Kindle Fire HD For Dummies
Nancy C. Muir - 2012
This full-color guide will have you blazing through the web, staying entertained with the latest apps and games, watching your favorite TV shows and movies, and, of course, reading magazines, newspapers, and books to indulge all your interests. Whether this is your first tablet or you're upgrading from another device, you'll get to know your Kindle Fire HD and rekindle your love of reading with "Kindle Fire HD For Dummies"!Covers the Kindle Fire HD and original Kindle FireHelps you navigate the interface, customize your settings, get connected, and take advantage of Amazon CloudShows you how to work with the built-in apps and find new ones to to try out from the Amazon AppstoreExplains how to fill your Kindle Fire with cool stuff - from movies and music to videos, photos, apps, e-books, and moreWalks you through using Amazon's incredibly smooth Amazon Silk web browser to find anything you need online and keep in touch with e-mail, Skype, Facebook, and TwitterLight 'er up and unleash the fun with "Kindle Fire HD For Dummies"!