A documentary adaptation of Alvin Tofler's book - Future Shock, this documentary shows how slow ideas really move and how change is not immediate. Ideas take time to germinate and much of what the film suggests is still being played out 40 years on.
A dynamic writer and speaker, Steven Johnson crafts captivating theories that draw on a dizzying array of disciplines, without ever leaving his audience behind. Author Kurt Anderson described Johnson's book Emergence as "thoughtful and lucid and charming and staggeringly smart." The same could be said for Johnson himself. His big-brained, multi-disciplinary theories make him one of his generation's more intriguing thinkers. His books take the reader on a journey -- following the twists and turns his own mind makes as he connects seemingly disparate ideas: ants and cities, interface design and Victorian novels.
Johnson's breakout 2005 title, Everything Bad Is Good for You , took the provocative stance that our fear and loathing of popular culture is misplaced; video games and TV shows, he argues, are actually making us smarter. His appearances on The Daily Show and Charlie Rose cemented his reputation as a cogent thinker who could also pull more than his share of laughs. His most recent work, The Ghost Map, goes in another direction entirely: It tells the story of a cholera outbreak in 1854 London, from the perspective of the city residents, the doctors chasing the disease, and the pathogen itself. The book shows how the epidemic brought about profound changes in science, cities and modern society. His upcoming work, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, tells the fascinating stories of great ideas and great thinkers across disciplines.
No mere chronicler of technology, Johnson is himself a longtime innovator in the web world: He was founder and Editor in Chief of FEED, one of the earliest and most interesting online magazines. He cofounded outside.in, an intriguing website that maps online conversations to real-world neighborhoods.
Chip Heath, co-author of "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die," talks about what makes certain ideas "naturally sticky."
Chip Heath is a Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. His research examines why certain ideas - ranging from urban legends to folk medical cures, from Chicken Soup for the Soul stories to business strategy myths - survive and prosper in the social marketplace of ideas. These "naturally sticky" ideas spread without external help in the form of marketing dollars, PR assistance, or the attention of leaders.
A few years back Chip designed a course, now a popular elective at Stanford, that asked whether it would be possible to use the principles of naturally sticky ideas to design messages that would be more effective. That course, "How to Make Ideas Stick," has now been taught to hundreds of students including managers, teachers, doctors, journalists, venture capitalists, product designers, and film producers.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 08:58AM