San Francisco, California

“This is a relentless age we’re living in, a time when innovative solutions—or any solutions, for that matter—to our seemingly infinite problems seem in short supply… so how do we come up with new ideas? How do we learn to think outside of normal parameters? Are the processes in place for doing so flawed? Do we rely too much on computer models? On consultants? On big-idea gurus lauding the merits of tribes and crowds or of starfish and spiders? On Twitter?”

In today’s New York Times, Allison Arief suggests that “…we’re all so mired in it that we’ve forgotten how to get out of it—how to daydream, invent, engage with the absurd;” this is why she is so enamored with the work of inventor, author, cartoonist, and former urban planner Steven M. Johnson, “a sort of R. Crumb meets R. Buckminster Fuller. Johnson is a former urban planner, and his work tends toward the nodes where social issues intersect with design and urban planning issues.”

Worth a read, here.