book pickings

a visual way to explore the brain pickings book archive :: otlet's shelf theme :: back to brain pickings

CREATIVITY :: DESIGN :: SCIENCE :: HISTORY :: PSYCHOLOGY :: ART

ted

  1. Cheating The Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist Philippe Petit On August 7th, 1974, shortly after the World Trade Center was erected, French high-wire artist Philippe Petit stood in front of the impossible and took it full stride as he walked 200 feet between the Twin Towers, 1,368 feet above ground, on a 55-pound balancing rope. Dubbed “the artistic crime of the century,” the feat took six years of planning. Petit — who never finished formal education — had to acquaint himself with the most esoteric details of engineering, architecture, and the physics of wind, among other preemptive intricacies. At long last, Petit tells his story of autodidactic learning and creative ingenuity in a broader context of how to live life with “patience and tenacity” in an age of silver bullets and shortcuts.

    Cheating The Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist

    Philippe Petit

    On August 7th, 1974, shortly after the World Trade Center was erected, French high-wire artist Philippe Petit stood in front of the impossible and took it full stride as he walked 200 feet between the Twin Towers, 1,368 feet above ground, on a 55-pound balancing rope. Dubbed “the artistic crime of the century,” the feat took six years of planning. Petit — who never finished formal education — had to acquaint himself with the most esoteric details of engineering, architecture, and the physics of wind, among other preemptive intricacies. At long last, Petit tells his story of autodidactic learning and creative ingenuity in a broader context of how to live life with “patience and tenacity” in an age of silver bullets and shortcuts.
  2. Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love Helen Fisher Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher studies the evolution of human emotions and the intricacies of the brain in — and on — love, exploring the science of love without losing a sense of romance and shedding light on some of the complex ways in which the brain and the heart diverge.

    Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love

    Helen Fisher

    Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher studies the evolution of human emotions and the intricacies of the brain in — and on — love, exploring the science of love without losing a sense of romance and shedding light on some of the complex ways in which the brain and the heart diverge.
  3. The Filter Bubble Eli Pariser A compelling deep-dive into the invisible algorithmic editing on the web, a world where we’re being shown more of what algorithms think we want to see and less of what we should see.

    The Filter Bubble

    Eli Pariser

    A compelling deep-dive into the invisible algorithmic editing on the web, a world where we’re being shown more of what algorithms think we want to see and less of what we should see.