Creative Generalist's 2006 Round-up

 
Another amazing year for generalist ideas and initiatives! Here's a holiday sampling of some of my favourite posts from the last 12 months.

Leonardos - Defining creative generalists demographically. Possible?

Nintendo's Genre Innovation Strategy - We're seeing it now with the launch of the Wii. Nintendo is innovating across gaming genres.

The Wisdom of Crowds - James Surowiecki's fabulous book raised several points very relevant to the creative generalist discussion, such as:
[Decentralization] fosters, and in turn is fed by, specialization – of labor, interest, attention, or what have you. Specialization, as we’ve known since Adam Smith, tends to make people more productive and efficient. And it increases the scope and the diversity of the opinions and information in the system (even if each individual person’s interests become more narrow).

The Creative Imperative - Cause the World Economic Forum says so.

Do What You Love - Paul Graham's wildfire essay and one of Guy Kawasaki's many insightful lists.

Inspiration and Elaboration - Reverie is soup for the creative soul.

PostSecret: The Book - A simple idea stunningly packaged.

Generalist Obituaries - Gordon Parks, Jane Jacobs, and Lister Sinclair.

As We May Think - My discovery of Dr. Vannevar Bush's 1945 essay suggesting the need for a Memex, a search and cross-referencing machine not unlike what we have now in Google and others. "Knowledge and learning has become so complicated, so layered, so inefficient, that it is near impossible for anyone to be a generalist, in the sense Aristotle was."

Google and The Search - Two essential books about search engines, their beginnings, and their growing influence.

Bouncing Across Disciplines - Hmm, could generalism be the Holy Grail for creative longevity?

Seeking: Generalists - See, employers are looking for you.

Single-Issue Politicians - The role of well-rounded statesman appears to have lost its allure.

External Trends & Internal Strategies - The ability to effectively assess the external landscape drives the strategic and executional acumen so essential for leaders to have.

The Weather Makers - The single most important issue facing everybody and requiring true generalist understanding and solutions: rescuing our environment from unsustainability.

Mark Cuban's Knowledge Advantage - He's successful because he learns more than you do.

ideaCity 2006 - Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Reflections.

The Ten Faces of Innovation - IDEO general manager Tom Kelley delivers one of the best books of the year about innovation and innovative people.

How to Be an Expert on Everything - TV sensation Stephen Colbert speaks the truth.

Darwin's Nightmare - A brilliant and depressing documentary that patiently and vividly tells a complex story from multiple perspectives.

PlayPumps - Putting kids to work with play. An example of clever combinations.

The Long Tail - The most influential business book of the year.
The era of one-size-fits-all is ending, and in its place is something new, a market of multitudes. ... We are in the midst of the biggest explosion of variety in history.

Knowledge Bridging - An academic report suggesting that knowledge bridging can help companies bring products to market faster and raise money more quickly.

The New Creative Mind - More on sweet T-shapedness.

Conceptualists and Experimentalists - Dan Pink asks,"What kind of genius are you?"

Vote Versatilist in 2010 - News flash: The IT worker of 2010 won't be a technology guru but rather a 'versatilist.'

The Expert Mind - Scientific American explores expertise.

High Performance from High Potentials - Includes the Seven Deadly Deficiencies, the Ten Ways to Build Passion, and the Eight Ways to Wipe Out High Performers.

Loose Change - A vivid demonstration of the power of questions, observations, and the articulate synthesis of information.

Visual Curiosity - Ron Mueck's big lifelike sculptures, Peter Callesen's Papercuts, Candida Höfer's full-frontal objectification of libraries, and Jorn Olsen's surreal cloud formations.

Let's Paint, Exercise, & Blend Drinks! - You absolutely must watch this sublime combination of activities!

Collaborative Innovation Summit (BIF-2) - Day 1, Day 2, Reflections.

Jon Steel and Generalists - Excerpted gems from an interview Russell Davies had with the author of Perfect Pitch.

Lasse Gjertsen - Quite the mixmaster.

A Faculty of Everything - My paradise for curious generalist learners would have these 10 attributes.

Pause, Reflect and Forecast - Exactly what you can/should do next week.

To all my creative generalist friends, season's greetings and best wishes for 2007!