Not a Stack—Just Two Books

This summer I plan to participate in Cyber PD. I have not done so before and I like the idea of learning with others. There’s really one book I most want to read with others and I hope it will get some consideration as it seems to fall outside the types of texts I have seen in people’s stacks of books. The text is Pragmatic Imagination by Ann Pendleton-Julian and John Seely Brown. It is actually a small book written as a prelude to a much longer work, Design Unbound: Designing for Emergence in a White Water World, set to be published in October, 2018.

The authors explain that Pragmatic Imagination

begins from an assumption that agency in the world today requires a productive entanglement of imagination and action. It then presents a framework for unpacking the imagination as a wide range of mental activity that can be put to purpose in this world. (From here)

I find that books that aren’t necessarily in my field often offer me lots of room to create associational bridges between the philosophical approach advocated or insights offered and the work I do. I help people frame and solve problems. As such, texts that speak to design most often interest me.  Hope others will agree too.

The other book that I saw in a person’s stack that intrigued me was this: