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  • Welcome to the new Thriving Too community blog which aims shamelessly to prove the case for optimism by revealing the explosion in positive human thoughts, creations and actions from around the world.
  • Thriving aims to support a growing network of imaginative people working in social innovation, creativity, education, and community and network development.

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Inspiration

June 28, 2009

Embracing The Wide Sky

Tammat2 Is it bad form to dip into books that you buy as gifts for other people?  Probably.  Never mind, I couldn't resist.  Embracing the Wide Sky is the second book by amazing Daniel Tammet, who is 'a high-functioning autistic savant gifted with a facility for mathematical and natural language learning'.

I read a fascinating interview on Tammet, by Jonah Lehrer in Scientific American Mind last month so I could help flipping through his new book before wrapping it.

These are Tammet's inspiring closing paragraphs:

"With all that we have begun to learn in recent decades about the intricacy and idiosyncrasy of 'normal' brains and minds, and with the growing awareness of the wide variability in conditions as complex as the autistic spectrum, such distorting and hurtfull misconceptions will, I hope, decline in the years ahead.  Better still, society will find way to make best use of the talents and energies of differently able minds, maximising the depth and diversity of its intellectual capital in the face of the many different challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for all of us.

The future need not belong to the futurists.  Given the chance to contribute meaningfully within a truly inclusive meeting of every kind of mind, each one of us can use our brains to do what they have always done best: imagining a better and brighter tomorrow."

May 25, 2009

Speculative futures for an alternative present

Thrilling

This looks great!

Speculative Futures For An Alternate Present 

A symposium co-ordinated by Liam Young (AA INTER 7 / Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today) and Geoff Manaugh (BLDGBLOG) 

  • 29th May 2009 = 11am - 5pm 
  •   
  • Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture
    36 Bedford Square
    London WC1B 3ES 
     
    • "Everything is becoming science fiction. From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th century.” J.G. Ballar 
    • "We have always regaled ourselves with speculative tales of a day yet to come. 

      In this symposium we will hear stories from such foreign fields as gaming, film, comics, animation, literature and art.  These speculative practitioners present alternative models as test sites for the deployment of the wondrous possibilities or dark cautionary tales of our own architectural imaginings. And so we wander off the map to embark on a future safari into the brave new worlds that may evolve from our own."

    • More details, including speakers 

May 01, 2009

Make Stuff!

Making10

I am a huge fan of David Gauntlett's thinking around sharing, making and connecting.  He has a beautiful brand new site which pulls all the threads and links together.  It is great! 

April 30, 2009

Someone Once Told Me

Jemima


Isn't that a great piece of advice?  

SOTM makes you think about really important pieces of advice that people have given you.  As Jemima says:

"it’s a nice thing to play around with once you get the head space, because we don’t usually take enough time to reflect on our lives, particularly significant changes and that sort of thing.

After meeting Lila’s dad, the birth of our daughter is probably the singularly most important thing that’s happened to me, and it was sweet to get the chance to remember that. Which is why I’m smiling in the picture."

You can order your own quote through the website!

April 20, 2009

Sketchbooks in Schools

Sketchbooks

Sketchbooks in Schools is a great resource.  There are videos on how to make lots of different sketchbooks by hand. I love that they have a section on 'developing sketchbook skills', which include problem solving, responding, note-making, developing ideas, dreaming, researching and collecting.

April 19, 2009

Goodlifer

Sitetitle_image Verticalgardens_b 

Goodlifer is a really brilliant new site worth having a good look around... great ideas and stories on there...

"We want you to share in and help craft a positive, enthusiastic vision of a future that is both sustainable and achievable. Through first-hand, personal journalism and thoughtful exploration and discussion we’re here to consider daily choices, reconsider assumptions, pose questions, uncover opportunities, make you think and collaborate with us on what it means to be a Goodlifer."

April 03, 2009

The five rules for life

"The Five Rules For Life website was created so people can share with - and learn from - one another what they think is most important when it comes to leading a happy, successful, and fulfilling life.

Fiverulesboard2

The site's creator said, "Someone commented that this is a great motivational site. I agree, but even more important I think it is a great learning site. There is a lot of wisdom, knowledge, and experience in the thoughts and words contained herein. It is my hope that you visit the site often and every time you do, you find something that will benefit your life or at the very least something that will make you think."

An example of a great contribution to the site is this entry by Brian Johnson. If you'd like to submit your own Five Rules, or to learn more, visit their Frequently Asked Questions section."

Discovered at the Serendipity Factory

March 25, 2009

Wisdom - IDEO Style

Ideo12

In Fast Company a number of people have related advice given to them by IDEO's David Kelley.  Here are just a few....

"You're the best version of yourself when you manage to have fun doing your work." -- from Chris Flink, IDEO

"You can't think your way through every problem. Trying things and engaging people helps you get unstuck." -- from George Kembel, executive director, Stanford d.school

"'Do not allow hierarchy and status into your teams, and your workplace because it will destroy collaboration." -- PK

"There is no challenge, big or small, in the world that could not benefit from a healthy dose of cavalier creativity." -- CF

"Think with your hands, build something or try something, then talk about it, NOT the reverse." -- PK

"David helped me realize that it's not what you work on, but whom you work with that makes all the difference. This, ironically, resonates even at a company that tackles some of the most exciting creative challenges in the world." -- CF

If you are interested in Design for Social Impact, then IDEOs Guide and Workbook are brilliant and can be downloaded from the link.

March 21, 2009

Putting the Om in MoMA

19strategies_CA2

I find this hugely appealing because it opens up all sorts of lovely possibilities. MoMA hosted 150 yoga enthusiasts, pictured above surrounded by a video installation by the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist.

As reported in the New York Times museums have been hit hart by the downturn. 

“In these difficult times we want to hit as many buttons as we can,” said Glenn D. Lowry, director of MoMA. “We’re doing everything possible to connect with people.”

So is the Hammer Museum, part of the University of California, Los Angeles. The artist Lisa Anne Auerbach has organized a bike night at the museum for April 16, during which bicyclists can ride into its courtyard.

March 13, 2009

Universal Message on Individual Social Action

A new campaign and message from the Philippines called One Tama - applicable to every country?
One Tama Intro from Duyan ng Giting on Vimeo

Via: Osocio

March 11, 2009

Trust in Networks

Karen stephenson NESTA are holding a seminar with Dr Karen Stephenson on Friday 20th March 09 in London. 

Dr Stephenson is an influential social network theorist,  and will argue that the association between trust and learning is an instrument of vast, if frequently untapped organisational power. 

“People have at their very finger tips…tremendous amounts of tacit knowledge, which are not captured in computer systems or on paper. Trust is the utility through which this knowledge flows.” 

The seminar is sponsored by Entheo, the innovation agency.

To book a free place click here 

March 03, 2009

What Inspires Sir Ken?

As part of a series of films for Intel's Inspired by Education

February 26, 2009

Ironworkers Paint The Names of Children on Their New Building

Boston
This is a Special Story

It has become a beloved ritual at Dana-Farber in Boston: Every day, children who come to the clinic write their names on sheets of paper and tape them to the windows of the walkway for ironworkers to see. And, every day, the ironworkers paint the names onto I-beams and hoist them into place as they add floors to the new 14-story Yawkey Center for Cancer Care.

February 25, 2009

Earth Rise, Earth Set

February 13, 2009

Tinkering School

Gever Tulley has posted a *new* comic of his 2009 TED presentation on his website.


Frequent visitors to this blog know how much we love Gever and his wonderful Tinkering School...

"The Tinkering School offers an exploratory curriculum designed to help kids - ages 7 to 17 - learn how to build things. By providing a collaborative environment in which to explore basic and advanced building techniques and principles, we strive to create a school where we all learn by fooling around. All activities are hands-on, supervised, and at least partly improvisational.


Grand schemes, wild ideas, crazy notions, and intuitive leaps of imagination are, of course, encouraged and fertilized."

Tinker

January 31, 2009

The Element

410295.jpg image by cheshirecat65140

I seem to surround myself with people who know what it is they want to do in life, or at least pretend to. Personally, I have no idea. But I keep reminding myself that I'm 19, and that there's no hurry. I suppose I feel such pressure because I didn't go through things in the normal way. If I had stayed in England (where I'm originally from) then I would have taken my GCSEs and gone on to specialize in something. We moved to America, to Los Angeles, when I was 12, just in time for middle school. I stayed in school until I was 16, which in England would have been fine. In America however, they tend to think that your life ends if you don't graduate college, let alone high school. Never the less, I did leave school when I was 16.

The thing is, I hated school. I felt suffocated and lost there. The teachers kept explaining to me that I would have no future unless I succeeded in their classes, but no matter how hard I tired, I just didn't care enough to pay attention. There wasn't a moment in the entire four and a half years I spent in the place that I knew who I was, let alone felt like myself. I remember one teacher telling me that I seemed to dance to the beat of my own drum, the only problem was that nobody else could hear the music. 

So, I left, and spent two years working before going to community college where I currently am now. While the route I tool was certainly unorthodox in Los Angeles, and had, I will admit, it's lonely moments, I have never regretted it for a moment. In the past three years I have learnt more about myself, and life, than in my entire life up to the tender age of 16. Of course non of that would have been possible without my parents, who supported and guided me every step of the way. But the thing is, while everybody I knew in high school has two years left of college, I feel some kind of pressure to know what it is that I'm supposed to do with my life. The things is though, I don't.

I mentioned my parents. My name is Kate, and my Dad, Ken Robinson, who wrote the book in the picture above. He has written several books before The Element, but I have to admit that this is the first one that I've read. My dad travels the World talking about how schools stifle creativity. Instead of reading my paraphrases, you can watch speaking at the TED conference here:
The Element is about how finding your passion changes everything. When you're in your
element, everything else seems to flourish, but that the vast majority of us go through life without ever knowing what it is that we're truly good at.  These are things that my father has been telling me for years, and things that I feel very passionately about.

It wasn't until I actually read The Element though, that everything seemed to come in on me properly. I was instantly inspired. I signed up for as many different classes as I possibly could, from sewing to Yoga Booty Ballet (a fusion of yoga, ballet and cardio, which I'm very excited for!).  The book is an encouragingly easy read, but I promise that afterwards your life will never be the same.  

I say all of this as his daughter.  I have spent my whole life hearing these things, and I was completely jaded with it all. But The Element opened something inside for me.  I want to find my true potential.  But there is no hurry for me to declare what it is that I want to do with myself.  I realized that the most exciting part of life is finding out.

You can find out more about the book at:

January 20, 2009

Light Lane

Light_lane


"LightLane projects a crisply defined virtual bike lane onto pavement, using a laser, providing the driver with a familiar boundary to avoid."

I don't think that this is being made yet - But what a great idea!  Via: Fun Creative Innovative

January 19, 2009

Tools for Action

Tools for action

"The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) presents the exhibition Actions: What You Can Do With the City, an exhibition with 99 actions that instigate positive change in contemporary cities around the world. Seemingly common activities such as walking, playing, recycling, and gardening are pushed beyond their usual definition by the international architects, artists, and collectives featured in the exhibition. Their experimental interactions with the urban environment show the potential influence personal involvement can have in shaping the city, and challenge fellow residents to participate."

The Tools for Action website is brilliant!  Thanks to Dominic Campbell for the link! 


Tools for action2

January 18, 2009

One and only one

A book filled with quotes from artists, musicians, architects, designers, philosophers, etc. With empty pages to add your own.
Limted edition of 50 pieces.

One_liner

Brought to us by Buro Jet Design Studio.

2

Real Good

Simone

Fantastic quote from Simone Weil  that  Gretchen Rubin posted today.

"Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” 
--Simone Weil

Talking about Young People

Below is a short film describing Barnet Council's new school building programme. What is so delightful is how everyone talks about young people! Thanks to Dominic Campbell for the link!

 

January 17, 2009

Presenting Your Visual Thinking

The pressures involved in presenting are huge.  There seems to be so much we can get wrong and many presenters have become so self-conscious about poorly create slides that many aren't using slides anymore.  And still we sit through presentations with no images, and lots of text.  On Slide:ology their predications for 2009 include:

"Presenters will begin to feel audiences demand quality communication. There’ll be heckling and protesting from the audience when the presenter doesn’t design their visuals well or rehearse their material."

Which isn't great news really. Some of us are only just getting over the fear factor and the expectation to communicate and engage is getting very high. 

It is an issue that is not trivial either.  Many people I know are involved in ideas and new thinking and it is vital that they communicate these ideas in ways that excite others (I certainly include school teachers in this). Sometimes our ideas can be so complex that just adding images to enliven is not sufficient.  XPLANE  is one company expanding the possibilities through visual thinking. If you run any type of workshops you know that being able to express ideas visually and immediately is important.... and skilful. 

The film below by Dave Gray founder and Chairman of XPLANE is great!  And it is much more difficult than it looks.  Dave's blog is really worth going through.


The other site worth visiting is Garr Reynolds Presentation Zen. One of Garr's examples of brilliant presenting is Benjamin Zander's presention at Pop!Tech 2008 - below. For a bit of self teaching, the book to get is The back of the napkin  by Dan Roam. For images get some from iStock photo. Many of them only cost a £1.

And if you are feeling really ambitious, and have mastered all manner of smaller presentation skills (such as not fainting, squeaking, loosing your train of thought, laughing to yourself, or my personal favourite, laughing at yourself, looking vacant etc) try the fabulous new zooming, mapping, go wherever you want to, online presentation software Prezi. If you do something on there please send me your link - I would love to see how you get on!

The Windows launch slides from 2005 (full set) are often shown as some of the worst ever!
Gates

January 15, 2009

Mossy Carpet

Moss_carpet2

Designed by Nguyen La Chanh,  this Moss Carpet is made from imputrescible foam called plastazote, and includes ball moss, island moss and forest moss. The humidity of the bathroom, and drips from standing on it after a bath or shower, ensures that the mosses thrive. And that’s why you need to place it there and not anywhere else.

January 14, 2009

A Good Influence

Daniel-Snell-002 

Daniel Snell (friend of Thriving) from Arrival Education has a very nice piece in today's Guardian newspaper.  The Article  describes Daniel's work, which puts young people through a five-day Success for Life course and can lead to work placements and job offers in big City firms.

"These young people should become positive role models for their community, he says. "We have them start to shape their community, so they can get to the young kids before they drop out, before they get expelled, or get involved in crime or drugs." says Daniel, who intends to run 15 courses this year.

Inspiring work!

A little escape

Every now and then go away for a little relaxation, when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer and fresher. After all, computers have lots of memory but no imagination...

Escaping

"Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars." Henry Van Dyke

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