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There are several events each week that may be of interest to you! Please visit the PAW Calendar.
As researchers we problem solve for a living and finding new ideas is part of our everyday live. Talking to researchers from different disciplines helps broadens one's perspective and nourishes our creativity. Join us in this “Researchers book club” the last Thursday of each month (noon – 1:00pm) to discuss a book around the theme of Creativity and Problem solving.
When: last Thursday of each month, 12 noon to 1:00 pm
Who’s invited: everyone that is interested in creativity and problem solving
Contact: Shaimaa Ali
Books are available to borrow at the front desk at SGPS
Seeking Wisdom from Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin
Peter Bevelin begins his fascinating book with Confucius' great wisdom: "A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it, is
committing another mistake." Seeking Wisdom is the result of Bevelin's learning about attaining wisdom. His quest for wisdom originated partly from making mistakes himself and observing those of others but also from the philosophy of super-investor and Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charles Munger. A man whose simplicity and clarity of thought was unequal to anything Bevelin had seen. In addition to naturalist Charles Darwin and Munger, Bevelin cites an encyclopedic range of thinkers: from first-century BCE Roman poet Publius Terentius to Mark Twain-from Albert Einstein to Richard Feynman-from 16th Century French essayist Michel de Montaigne to Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett. In the book, he describes ideas and research findings from many different fields. This book is for those who love the constant search for knowledge. It is in the spirit of Charles Munger, who says, "All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there." There are roads that lead to unhappiness. An understanding of how and why we can "die" should help us avoid them. We can't eliminate mistakes, but we can prevent those that can really hurt us. Using exemplars of clear thinking and attained wisdom, Bevelin focuses on how our thoughts are influenced, why we make misjudgments and tools to improve our thinking. Bevelin tackles such eternal questions as: Why do we behave like we do? What do we want out of life? What interferes with our goals? Read and study this wonderful multidisciplinary exploration of wisdom. It may change the way you think and act in business and in life.
Da Vinci and the 40 answers - A play book for creativity and fresh ideas by Genrikh Altshuller
This book is based on the principles of TRIZ – the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving that began with Genrikh Altshuller. In his study of hundreds of thousands of patents, Altshuller determined there are only about 1,500 basic problems – and each of these problems can be solved by applying one or more of the 40 universal answers.
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
In his latest bestseller, Atul Gawande shows what the simple idea of the checklist reveals about the complexity of our lives and how we can deal with it. The modern world has given us stupendous know-how. Yet avoidable failures continue to plague us in health care, government, the law, the financial industry—in almost every realm of organized activity. And the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded our ability as individuals to properly deliver it to people—consistently, correctly, safely. We train longer, specialize more, use ever-advancing technologies, and still we fail. Atul Gawande makes a compelling argument that we can do better, using the simplest of methods: the checklist. In riveting stories, he reveals what checklists can do, what they can’t, and how they could bring about striking improvements in a variety of fields, from medicine and disaster recovery to professions and businesses of all kinds. And the insights are making a difference. Already, a simple surgical checklist from the World Health Organization designed by following the ideas described here has been adopted in more than twenty countries as a standard for care and has been heralded as “the biggest clinical invention in thirty years” (The Independent).
I Am Right You are Wrong by Dr Edward de Bono
Dr Edward de Bono, who is well-known worldwide for his origination of lateral thinking, puts forward a direct challenge to what he calls the 'rock logic' of Western thought. Rock logic is based on rigid categories, absolutes, argument and adversarial point scoring. Edward de Bono believes that this thinking cannot solve our problems. Instead of rock logic, he proposes the water logic of perception. Drawing on our understanding of the brain as a self-organizing information system, Dr de Bono shows that perception is the key to more constructive thinking and creativity. Here, in this brilliantly argued assault on outmoded thought patterns, he calls for nothing less than a New Renaissance.
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