I'm changing threads in hopes for making some people's lives better. Regarding Complications, I first made the connection between this excellent collection of essays on practicing medicine and design when John Zapolski placed "Whose Body is it Anyway" on the desks of his fellow design managers are yahoo and suggested we read it replacing the word body with design. Reading it, it was clear that the question of "design ownership" could be seen through the question of treatment choices for a patient. In both cases the doctor and the designer is the expert, but in both cases the business owner/product manager and the patient will live wiht the consequences of those choices. obviously it's a big difference in scale of repercussions. Many of the essays deal with questions of practice, and design is all about practice.
I'd say that Better is even more about design, since it's 100% about how can we become better at our practices. For example, his article on the Checklist (also in Better) http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/10/071210fa_fact_gawande They are also compelling books in their own right, well written and entertaining as well as educational. On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 3:42 AM, Mike Padgett <[email protected]>wrote: > Christina, > > At the risk of pushing the off-topic thing too far, I read Atul Gawande's > "Complications" a couple of years ago and it was indeed excellent but I > confess to being surprised that it might have been highly relevant to design > (or rather that I missed that ;-)). > > Would you mind elaborating just a little on that? I remember reading it for > general interest (at the same time as Mary Roach's marvellous "Stiff": I > think I must have been having a mortality check) and I'm wondering now if I > need to take a second look! > > Thx, > > Mike > > ------------------- > Mike Padgett > www.mikepadgett.com > ------------------- > > > >Yes. Outliers is good also. If you love these, try "Better" and > >Complications" by Gladwell's pal Atul Gawnde. HIGHLY relevant to design, > >despite being about medicine. > > > >On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 4:05 PM, Angel Marquez <[email protected] > >wrote: > > > >> Is 'The Tipping Point' as good as 'Blink'? > >> > >> On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 1:45 PM, Robert Hoekman Jr <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> > >> > > > >> > > Wilken's Law: > >> > > The effectiveness of research is inversely proportional to the > >> > > thickness of its binding. > >> > > > >> > > >> > I couldn't agree more. In fact, Gladwell's book Blink even backs up > this > >> > idea. > >> > > >> > Back to the topic now ... > >> > > >> > -r- > >> > ________________________________________________________________ > >> > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > >> > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > >> > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > >> > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > >> > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > >> > > >> ________________________________________________________________ > >> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > >> To post to this list ....... [email protected] > >> Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > >> List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > >> List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > >> > >________________________________________________________________ > >Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > >To post to this list ....... [email protected] > >Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > >List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > >List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
