Jesse James Garrett

We’ve had a lot of intellectually expansive conversations on Finding Our Way over the years, but our latest episode with business strategist Roger Martin might be the first to merit its own reading list. So here’s a quick rundown of some of the works referenced in our conversation:

• Analytica Posteriora by Aristotle (ca. 330 BCE). One of the foundational works in Western philosophy, this book lays the groundwork for our concepts of scientific analysis and truth-seeking.
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn (1962). Best known as the origin of the concept of the “paradigm shift”, this examination of the history and philosophy of science defines the patterns in how we arrive at collective truth. There are few books I can say fundamentally reworked my understanding of the world; this one is high on the list.
• “ia/recon” by Jesse James Garrett (2002). This six-part essay, written in a moment of great unease and uncertainty in the field, tries to capture some of the forces at play, including the “creeping scientism” (as I described it on the podcast) that I characterized in the essay as “dressing up in lab coats”. Read it here.
• “The MFA Is the New MBA” by Daniel Pink in Harvard Business Review (2004). We discuss on the show why Pink’s assertion didn’t quite manifest as expected.
• Subject to Change by Peter Merholz et al. (2008). Known during its development as “The Adaptive Path Book,” this was our attempt to capture our practices and philosophies on keeping products and businesses, well, adaptive.
• The Design of Business by Roger L. Martin (2009). This book defined the relationships between design work, design thinking, innovation, and business value in ways that continue to set the terms for the conversation today.
• Change by Design by Tim Brown (2009). This book from the CEO of IDEO sold design thinking methodology as the sure-fire cure for thousands of businesses that had never seen design as a strategic capability.
• “Goodbye, Google” by Doug Bowman (2009). Bowman was among the first prominent critics of Silicon Valley’s data-driven design decision-making. Read it here.

As you can see, we really covered some big ideas this time. Thanks to Roger and Peter for the conversation!