{"product_id":"the-plenitude-creativity-innovation-and-making-stuff-simplicity-design-technology-business-life","title":"The Plenitude: Creativity  Innovation  and Making Stuff (Simplicity: Design  Technology  Business  Life)","description":"\u003cp\u003eLessons from and for the creative professions of art  science  design  and engineering: how to live in and with the Plenitude  that dense  knotted ecology of human-made stuff that creates the need for more of itself. We live with a lot of stuff. The average kitchen  for example  is home to stuff galore  and every appliance  every utensil  every thing  is compoundcomposed of tens  hundreds  even thousands of other things. Although each piece of stuff satisfies some desire  it also creates the need for even more stuff: cereal demands a spoon; a television demands a remote. Rich Gold calls this dense  knotted ecology of human-made stuff the \"Plenitude.\" And in this bookat once cartoon treatise  autobiographical reflection  and practical essay in moral philosophyhe tells us how to understand and live with it. Gold writes about the Plenitude from the seemingly contradictory (but in his view  complementary) perspectives of artist  scientist  designer  and engineerall professions pursued by him  sometimes simultaneously  in the course of his career. \"I have spent my life making more stuff for the Plenitude \" he writes  acknowledging that the Plenitude grows not only because it creates a desire for more of itself but also because it is extraordinary and pleasurable to create. Gold illustrates these creative expressions with witty cartoons. He describes \"seven patterns of innovation\"including \"The Big Kahuna \" \"Colonization\" (which is illustrated by a drawing of \"The real history of baseball \" beginning with \"Play for free in the backyard\" and ending with \"Pay to play interactive baseball at home\")  and \"Stuff Desires to Be Better Stuff\" (and its corollary  \"Technology Desires to Be Product\"). Finally  he meditates on the Plenitude itself and its moral contradictions. How can we in good conscience accept the pleasures of creating stuff that only creates the need for more stuff? He quotes a friend: \"We should be careful to make the world we actually want to live in.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44985811107893,"sku":"ByrdShop_0262072890","price":28.88,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780262072892.jpg?v=1770872383","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-plenitude-creativity-innovation-and-making-stuff-simplicity-design-technology-business-life","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}