Designing Your Life: Build a Life that Works for You - Softcover

Burnett, Bill,Evans, Dave

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1784740241 ISBN 13: 9781784740245

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2013

Synopsis

Designing Your Life

About this title

About the Author

Bill Burnett (Author) Bill Burnett is the Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford. He got his BS and MS in Product Design at Stanford and has worked professionally on a wide variety of projects ranging from award-winning Apple PowerBooks to the original Star Wars action figures. He holds a number of mechanical and design patents, and design awards for a variety of products including the first `slate' computer. Dave Evans (Author) Dave Evans is the Co-Director of the Stanford Life Design Lab and holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. Early in his career he worked for Apple, where he led the mouse-design team and introduced laser printing to the masses. He then helped found the pioneering video games developer Electronic Arts.

Review

"A gem amid self-help dross... The authors make the case that design skills such as reframing, prototyping and brainstorming can help us make better career and life choices, or undo bad choices before they do more harm. One idea: keep a diary noting how much you enjoy each task - and think about how to do more of the tasks you love" -- Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist * Financial Times * "You're going to learn how to find a fulfilling career. You're going to learn how to better navigate life's big-moment decisions and kill your "wicked problems" dead... Design thinking, as rendered in the book, is about treating life in a more improvisational way. It's a welcome counterbalance to the data-driven, engineering mind-set gripping the culture. Follow Mr. Burnett's and Mr. Evans's teachings, and the anxiety-ridden process of decision making suddenly seems more playful. Their method is experiential and accepts that failure is part of the process" * New York Times * "Their philosophy is that by applying a Silicon Valley-tested design approach, we can all build lives that will suit us better - regardless of our age... I sketched my own plans, which unearthed dreams I'd never really articulated, or hadn't thought about in over a decade. I drew an alternative life, in which I would work with photographers at a gallery or an art publisher. The process gave me an ego boost - maybe I'm not a one-trick pony - and filled me with a sense of possibility that reminded me of being a kid" -- Hattie Crisell * Pool * "Life has questions. They have answers" * New York Times * "A Designing Your Life class has become one of Silicon Valley's most popular courses... Two academic studies have now proved its ability to cut anxiety on the career front and help people each their goals whatever their age... Crucially, your life is not a problem to be solved. It's an experience, and the fun comes from designing it" -- Christina Patterson * Daily Mail * "Numerous studies suggest we're generally miserable at work... The book was born out of the eponymous course Burnett and Evans teach at Stanford and uses techniques that anyone familiar with design thinking will instantly recognize to allow us to take control of our lives... With change likely to be a growing presence in all of our lives, the basic design principles outlined above could prove invaluable in helping us to create the kind of life we want" -- Adi Gaskell * Forbes * "[Bill Burnett and Dave Evans] bring a rigorous approach to rethinking your life (with a major focus on work) and have been credited with revolutionising careers coaching in American universities... [Designing Your Life] teaches you how to change what's not working by turning ideas on their head. I think of it as Bill and Dave's Excellent Adventure: How To Stop Driving Yourself Mad With Unnecessary Drama And Anxiety" -- Viv Groskop * Pool * "Everyone should read this book!" -- Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa "Bill and Dave's session was one of the highlights of FutureFest 2016. Hundreds of people packed into The Social Stage, a relatively small space, to see them; the laughter from their audience was heard throughout the venue. Clearly they made a significant impact as they managed to sell more books than all the other speakers at FutureFest combined" -- Josh McNorton * FutureFest * "There is no design problem more challenging than figuring out what we are going to do with our life . . . Bill Burnett and Dave Evans are bringing their powerful insights to readers everywhere to help them create a productive and happy life . . . This [is] the career book of the next decade and . . . the go-to book that is read as a rite of passage whenever someone is ready to create a life they love -- " -- David Kelley, Founder of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford "Bill Burnett and Dave Evan's wisdom will bring immense fulfillment, accomplishment, and happiness to all who read and apply it to their lives" -- Laura Arrillaga Andreessen, Founder & Chairman Emeritus of SV2 "The go to book for young adults ready to create a life they love" -- Nicole Taylor; Executive Director, Thrive Foundation for Youth "In business, we have lots of ways of helping people become better leaders, managers and entrepreneurs in designing more effective enterprises. It's shocking in contrast how little help we give people in designing their lives. Design thinking at Stanford is making major contributions in many fields and Burnett and Evans have finally extended it to empower individuals to do "life design." It's about time-I recommend it highly" -- John Christensen; President, Foresight first, Inc "Imagine a conversation between Vaclav Havel and Steve Jobs-the playwright-become-politician who drew on an older wisdom about the good life lived in the modern world, and the iconic visionary who worked his dreams into the marketplace of the 21st-century-and you begin to get some sense of the importance of Designing Your Life. Playful and serious at the same time, the authors have drawn on years of working in the design world of Silicon Valley and years of teaching at Stanford University to invite us into an honest conversation about forming a well-lived life" -- Steven Garber, The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture "An exciting, clear, and amusing guide to reaching your goals by designing your life. Engaging from the start, the book reveals a step-by-step method to teach the reader how to think like a designer and build a life to thrive in" * Flight Time, Editor's Pick *

Edition details

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1784740241
• ISBN 13: 9781784740245
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English