Ray and Charles Eames: More than Chairs | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

When Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, started his career, he had one goal: Create films using computer-generated animation. Despite a multitude of challenges, Catmull worked tirelessly to advance the technology of computer animation and, eventually, co-founded Pixar to marry his love of animation with his expertise in computer technology.

Through the journey of Pixar’s creation, Catmull developed leadership strategies that fostered creativity in the workplace while ensuring that the company remained profitable and successful. In Creativity, Inc., Catmull breaks down the most important factors in building and sustaining a creative culture. From removing fear from failure and protecting new ideas, Catmull explains the ways Pixar’s creative culture allowed it to grow into the animation behemoth it is today.

Hidden Figures tells the story of a group of African-American women who, over a period of over 25 years, made major contributions to the US space program. Working in the American South during the Civil Rights Era, they overcame both race- and gender-based discrimination to launch brilliant and storied careers as mathematicians and engineers. These women were the unsung protagonists who shaped America’s destiny, playing a major role in the great drama of the nation’s history.

From the first home computers to the smartphone revolution, Steve Jobs was a guiding force in the worldwide electronics industry. His innovations, his obsessions, and even his shortcomings impacted the way we use computers today. To understand Jobs’s life is to understand why the modern information landscape functions the way it does.

Walter Isaacson’s biography is considered to be the definitive work on Steve Jobs’s life. He was given full access to Jobs and those who knew him with no limitations on what he might uncover. The result is an intimate portrait of a man who was thoughtful and callous, insightful and blind, and whose passions left a mark on the world.

This guide gives an overview of Steve Jobs’s life, then explores the themes that emerge from Isaacson’s narrative—Jobs’s knack for innovation and his emphasis on design, coupled with a domineering personality and his will to reshape reality to his liking.

In this heartfelt episode of "Just Jack & Will with Sean Hayes and Eric McCormack," the dynamic duo alongside esteemed guest Bob Greenblatt dive into behind-the-scenes stories, societal impact discussions, and hilarious name-related anecdotes. Fans of the iconic sitcom are in for a treat as Sean and Eric offer a charming mix of personal reflections and insights into the universe of "Will & Grace," seasoned with their warm camaraderie and witty banter. With ad-free and exclusive content, Wondery Plus listeners get an even more intimate experience as they learn about the influence of the beloved show on cultural norms and LGBTQ+ representation.

Listen to the thought-provoking commentary as Sean confronts his struggles with internalized homophobia and how portraying an openly gay character shaped societal perceptions. As they dissect "The Buying Game" episode, audiences will find themselves chuckling at the show's timeless humor and nodding along with the recognition of progress in television. The hosts also tackle heavier themes, balancing them with the signature comedy that made "Will & Grace" a pioneering force in inclusivity and representation. Interactive and engaging, this episode not only offers laughs but also invites fans to be part of the ongoing narrative—keeping the spirit of "Just Jack & Will" alive beyond the airwaves.

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of their original design research, Fortune and the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology surveyed design experts between 2019-2020 to come up with a list of the 100 best-designed products of the modern age.

The Glass Castle is the harrowing tale of Jeannette Wall’s life growing up in poverty with wayward parents. Jeannette and her siblings were often left to fend for themselves as their parents engaged in alcoholic binges or flights of fancy. The siblings ultimately resented their parents’ neglect and became independent, moving far away.

Following the Walls family through the desert to the coal-mining region of West Virginia to the fast-paced life of New York City, this memoir explores the nature of family, loyalty, and tragedy and what it takes to survive together and apart.

Why do certain organizations become greater than the sum of their parts while other groups fall short? The Culture Code aims to answer this question.

Organizations can develop a healthy group culture that promotes interconnection, teamwork, and consistency by focusing on three foundational concepts: safety, vulnerability, and purpose. The Culture Code breaks down the key attributes and benefits of each concept, warns of the consequences of ignoring them, and gives insight into how to implement them in your workplace.

Even a successful, long-lasting business can be undone by a harmful workplace culture. If a company fails to trust its employees, focuses on blame instead of solving problems, and drowns every decision in a sea of red tape, its rivals will outpace it in the market. In The Unicorn Project, Gene Kim presents a fictional case study of a business that falls behind its competitors because of its soul-crushing work conditions, leading a band of rebellious employees to figure out a new, more productive way of working.

In this guide, we’ll look at Kim’s diagnosis of the problems that exist in a toxic workplace, as well as the changes he recommends to foster creativity and productivity. We’ll discuss how Kim’s themes align with those of other business experts, and because Kim demonstrates his ideas through fiction, we’ll direct you to other nonfiction works in which his core concepts are fully explained.

A third to a half of Americans are introverts, according to author Susan Cain, but they’re often marginalized. In Quiet, Cain contends that Western society is designed around an “extrovert ideal” that celebrates those who are bold and charismatic. However, unbridled extroversion can lead to disasters, such as the fall of Enron and the 2008 financial crisis.

By overvaluing extroverts and treating introverts as misfits, society loses out on introverts’ unique strengths—for instance, they’re highly creative, astute observers, and adept at solving complex problems. Cain argues for a balance in society, school, and work that lets introverts be true to themselves and where the two personality types complement each other.

Humans play a wide variety of games, from basketball and chess to video games and poker. Why are we so enthralled with these games, even when they don’t really have an impact on our lives outside the game?

Theory of Fun for Game Design, by veteran game designer Raph Koster (lead designer of Ultima Online), discusses why games are fun, what games teach their players, and ultimately how to make a meaningful game.

Professor Vijay Kumar observes that many businesses claim to value innovation, but few succeed in consistently bringing innovations to market. The reason for this, he says, is that many companies don’t understand how to manage innovation—some don’t even realize that innovation can be planned and managed like other types of projects.

This book is Kumar’s solution to the problem. He lays out a systematic approach to innovation management involving the completion of seven innovation tasks. Kumar also discusses a number of specific tools and techniques you can use in the course of completing an innovation project. We’ll discuss his approach, examine some of the tools he presents, and compare Kumar’s advice to that of other innovation experts, like the creators of Blue Ocean Strategy, Zero to One, and Crossing the Chasm.

Do you often think about what you need to do to turn your child into a well-adjusted, successful adult? If so, you may be acting as a carpenter parent—a parent who adheres rigidly to the blueprint for raising a “successful child”—instead of a gardener parent—a parent who nurtures the innate interests and talents of their child. In The Gardener and the Carpenter, Alison Gopnik explains that the goal of raising and caring for children should be to allow them to blossom into their unique selves and that parenting should not be a form of work but rather an act of love.

Gopnik is a professor of psychology, affiliate professor of philosophy, and author of multiple books on how to be a good parent. In our guide, we’ll explore the flaws in the current parenting model, how children naturally learn and grow, and how the schooling model also fails to effectively support children’s learning. We’ll add advice from other child-care experts, contextualize Gopnik’s ideas in psychology, and add research and statistics that support or contradict Gopnik’s theories.

The science of physics studies many topics, from the gravity holding planets together to electromagnetism and the microscopic forces inside the heart of the atom. Each of these forces works by different rules, some of which contradict each other. For centuries, scientists have sought a single theory that would unify these disparate fields and provide one equation from which we can derive a complete understanding of the universe. In The God Equation, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku suggests that an approach called “string theory” may be the path to uniting all the different laws of nature.

In this guide, we’ll trace the history of discoveries that unify areas of knowledge and reveal the underlying symmetries of nature. We’ll delve into string theory and define terms and concepts to give readers an understanding of the topic. We’ll discuss research to support string theory’s claims, and we’ll touch on the philosophical implications that a theory of the universe entails.

Have you always wanted to understand the natural world but found science classes tedious and science textbooks difficult to understand? Author Bill Bryson can relate—that was his motivation for researching and writing A Short History of Nearly Everything. The book is an accessible overview of the natural sciences that describes not only the important discoveries but also the unknowns and controversies that still exist in the sciences, like the mystery of missing mass in the universe and the puzzling details of human evolution.

In this guide, we’ve organized key topics from Bryson’s book into a concise chronology covering the origins of the universe, the geologic history of planet Earth, and the history of life on Earth. We’ll also analyze the scientific issues that Bryson brings up in light of recent scientific papers and compare his perspective to that of scientists like Stephen Hawking.

In this episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast, renowned expert Neri Oxman engages with host Lex Fridman in an intricate discourse spanning synthetic biology, material science, robotics, engineering, and the intersection of design and biology. Oxman, celebrated for her eclectic mix of skills, elucidates her groundbreaking concept of "Material Ecology," demonstrating how human innovation and natural systems can harmoniously coexist. Substantiated by Oxman's innovative projects and her belief in 'hero organisms', this discussion explores the redefining of production scales and the seamless integration of technological advancement with biological intelligence.

Delving into the unknown, mantra of empowering nature and the equilibrium between options and decision making, is discussed. Notably striking is the vision for the development of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), opening up uncharted terrain in technology. Despite her apprehensions, Oxman emphasizes the need to probe further. The conversation takes profound turns as possibilities about integrating human consciousness into nature and simplifying material elements are discussed. Saving the biggest for last, the existence of extraterrestrial life – a subject steeped in anticipation and mystery - ends the intellectual feast of this podcast episode.