Ideas are like buses, you wait forever and then 500 come along atonce. The Big Idea Book is 500 novel, ingenious anddownright crazy ideas designed to inspire, amuse and divert.Developed by the team behind the innovative website, Idea-a-Day atwww.idea-a-day.com, itcovers everything from business to travel, politics to money andeverything in between. Idea-a-Day has a vast network of followers and contributors -some famous, some infamous, some revered, some reviled – whopost ideas to be read, enjoyed, used or abused. Seth Godin, MalcolmMaclaren and Wayne Hemmingway are just a few of its fans. In TheBig Idea Book all this creative energy is mixed together withunpublished ideas, quotes, cartoons, illustrations andthought-pieces to give creatives and cool office types a visual andintellectual treat guaranteed to kickstart the imagination andcreative flair!

What do Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso have in common? Can we learn about science by studying art There are many connections just waiting to be discovered between the natural world and artistic techniques that have been used for centuries. Mary Kirsch Boehm systematically guides you through a look at science with an artistic eye, introducing an integrated and often overlooked view of the two disciplines. By exploring the materials and techniques of art and the science behind them, Boehm reveals just how interconnected our world really is.

A 2010 IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the number one leadership competency of the future. What are you doing right now to build yours? Book jacket.

The instant New York Times Bestseller #1 Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller Instant Washington Post Bestseller "Brims with a surprising amount of insight and practical advice." --The Wall Street Journal Daniel H. Pink, the #1 bestselling author of Drive and To Sell Is Human, unlocks the scientific secrets to good timing to help you flourish at work, at school, and at home. Everyone knows that timing is everything. But we don't know much about timing itself. Our lives are a never-ending stream of "when" decisions: when to start a business, schedule a class, get serious about a person. Yet we make those decisions based on intuition and guesswork. Timing, it's often assumed, is an art. In When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, Pink shows that timing is really a science. Drawing on a rich trove of research from psychology, biology, and economics, Pink reveals how best to live, work, and succeed. How can we use the hidden patterns of the day to build the ideal schedule? Why do certain breaks dramatically improve student test scores? How can we turn a stumbling beginning into a fresh start? Why should we avoid going to the hospital in the afternoon? Why is singing in time with other people as good for you as exercise? And what is the ideal time to quit a job, switch careers, or get married? In When, Pink distills cutting-edge research and data on timing and synthesizes them into a fascinating, readable narrative packed with irresistible stories and practical takeaways that give readers compelling insights into how we can live richer, more engaged lives.

The definitive history of America’s greatest incubator of innovation and the birthplace of some of the 20th century’s most influential technologies “Filled with colorful characters and inspiring lessons . . . The Idea Factory explores one of the most critical issues of our time: What causes innovation?” —Walter Isaacson, The New York Times Book Review “Compelling . . . Gertner's book offers fascinating evidence for those seeking to understand how a society should best invest its research resources.” —The Wall Street Journal From its beginnings in the 1920s until its demise in the 1980s, Bell Labs-officially, the research and development wing of AT&T-was the biggest, and arguably the best, laboratory for new ideas in the world. From the transistor to the laser, from digital communications to cellular telephony, it's hard to find an aspect of modern life that hasn't been touched by Bell Labs. In The Idea Factory, Jon Gertner traces the origins of some of the twentieth century's most important inventions and delivers a riveting and heretofore untold chapter of American history. At its heart this is a story about the life and work of a small group of brilliant and eccentric men-Mervin Kelly, Bill Shockley, Claude Shannon, John Pierce, and Bill Baker-who spent their careers at Bell Labs. Today, when the drive to invent has become a mantra, Bell Labs offers us a way to enrich our understanding of the challenges and solutions to technological innovation. Here, after all, was where the foundational ideas on the management of innovation were born.

Something has gone deeply wrong with the university - too deeply wrong to be put right by any merely bureaucratic means. What's wrong is, simply, that our official idea of education, the idea that inspires all government policies and ‘initiatives', is itself uneducated. With the growing emphasis in higher education on training in supposedly useful skills, has the very ethos of the university been subverted? And does this more utilitarian university succeed in adding to the national wealth, the basis on which politicians justify the large public expenditure on the higher education system? Should we get our idea of a university from politicians and bureaucrats or from J.H. Newman, Jane Austen and Socrates? The New Idea of a University is an entertaining and highly readable defence of the philosophy of liberal arts education and an attack on the sham that has been substituted for it. It is sure to scandalize all the friends of the present establishment and be cheered elsewhere.

In America we like to think we live in a land of liberty, where everyone can say whatever they want. Throughout our history, however, we have also been quick to censor people who offend or frighten us. We talk a good game about freedom of speech, then we turn around and deny it to others. In this brief but bracing book, historian Jonathan Zimmerman and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Signe Wilkinson tell the story of free speech in America: who established it, who has denounced it, and who has risen to its defense. They also make the case for why we should care about it today, when free speech is once again under attack.Across the political spectrum, Americans have demanded the suppression of ideas and images that allegedly threaten our nation. But the biggest danger to America comes not from speech but from censorship, which prevents us fromfreely governing ourselves. Free speech allows us to criticize our leaders. It lets us consume the art, film, and literature we prefer. And, perhaps most importantly, it allows minorities to challenge the oppression they suffer. While any of us are censored, none of us are free.

New Ideas About New Ideas introduces us to a dynamic, eclectic collection of creators, whose far-out and far-reaching experiments are changing the world. Drawing from interviews with dozens of mavericks such as contemporary artist Jeff Koons, technology oracle Nathan Myrhvold, celebrated physicist Brian Greene, and biotech visionary Henri Termeer, Shira White explores the exhilarating process of generating new ideas and bringing them successfully to fruition. Blending important concepts from the worlds of management, the arts, science, and technology, Shira White reveals profound insights into what makes today's most creative people and organizations tick. You'll meet Corning chairman, Roger Ackerman, who led a series of extraordinary corporate transformations; genius architect Frank Gehry, who shocked the world with his earth-shattering Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao; pioneering Progressive Insurance chairman, Peter Lewis, who records his flashes of brilliance while swimming; Satjiv Chahil, who made Palm a household name; and many other innovators. New Ideas About New Ideas is bound to change the way you look at your life, your work, and your world.