Another amazing year for generalist ideas and initiatives! Here's a holiday sampling of some of my favourite posts from the last 12 months.
Gen C - Empowered, participative, and thriving on inter-relationships.
Seeing the Long View - Who Killed the Electric Car?, The Long Emergency, The Upside of Down, and Lead or Get Out of the Way.
Plight of the Original Cross-Pollinators - Bees are dying and no one is really quite sure why.
Explosions in the Sky - 2007 was a good year for concerts - none better than this one.
The Right Place at the Right Time - Aussie onlookers are treated to a sunset, fireworks, lightning, and a comet - all at once.
The Ambidextrous Pitcher - Creighton's Pat Venditte has a special pitch.
Do Schools Kill Creativity? - Sir Ken Robinson's must-see TED presentation.
Fridge and Stove Stories - Miranda July wins my award for best book promo of the year.
Extra-environmental Man - The 'Socrates of San Francisco': Howard Gossage.
The No-Man's Land Between Established Fields - The excellent introduction to Norbert Weiner's "Cybernetics".
Big Pictures - Running the Numbers and Manufactured Landscapes.
The Knowledge Web - An ambitious volunteer-run project with the goal of mapping out the time, space, and technology of human thought and experience for the purpose of facilitating broad inter-connected learning in education.
Poet Managers - “Poets are our original systems thinkers.”
Sketchy Art - Marvel at the Etch-a-Sketch master.
Rising Comedy Stars - Jo Koy and Variety Shac.
Drive and Curiosity - The two most important things to look for in a new hire.
Specialists and Generalists in 3D - Riffing on some great diagrams by Dave Gray.
The Single Most Important Leadership Skill - The emergence of "intersectional CEOs".
Haiku Applecart - One clever gem of observation after another.
Outlearn and Outward - Consider a glance at external factors.
Everything is Miscellaneous - On David Weinberger's book about intertwingularity, etc.
Specialized Places - Is the most important role of an urban planner essentially a generalist one that fosters cooperation and a synthesis of all the varied interests?
A Woman's Touch - Handywomen take on construction.
Generalists Happier? - Why specialists are grumpy and generalists are happy.
Powers of Ten - The classic short film.
At the Palace - Louisville's truly spectacular concert venue.
Dispatches from a few very inspiring events - Idea Festival, BIF-3, and Open House NY.
Product Specialists and Brand Generalists - A half-theory on the difference between product and brand strategies.
The Amen Break - Who knew a 6-second drum sample from the b-side of a 1969 single would play such an extraordinary role in the evolution of music and the conversation about intellectual property.
Henry Rollins Provoked - Three hours and ten minutes of masterful storytelling.
Amazon's Tinderbox - Observations on the bookseller's e-reader launch.
The Cross-Discipline Design Imperative - "There is a tremendous demand for design thinkers today."
Bent Objects - Simply brilliant creations.
Crowd Farms - An MIT invention makes something out of nothing.
Belly Flops - A Jelly Belly innovation makes something out of nothing.
The Top 5 Reasons to Be a Jack of All Trades - Author of "The 4-Hour Workweek" champions the generalist mantra.
The Character of Leadership - This is probably the best summary of what successful leadership is.
Try Everything in University - If you're doing the university thing, might as well make the most of it.