Monday, March 13, 2017

[Yasmin_discussions] stem to steam research: scott hartley ...The Fuzzy and the Techie ?

yasminers

scott hartley has his new book, the fuzzy and the techie, coming out
in april and i asked him
to tell us a bit about it= and engage him in our discussion

one thing of interest here is that scott brings the perspective of
venture capital= and as we discussed
with john maeda one of the things that has ripened the stem to steam
discussion is the convergence
of interests of the arts and tech community, the academics with the
growing number of Phds in art and design
as well as the corporate community with its call for "t" shaped
individuals a la 'ideo'- you will remember
maeda's comments a few years back that venture capital companies were
buying up design companies

combined with the arguements from research in creativity and
innovation ( see robert root bernsteins
work on arts avocations of succesful STEM professionals

what is interesting to see is the development of these reciprocal
arguments with the arts/design/humanities
in service of STEM, but also STEM in service of the arts/desiogn/humanities

scott argues below that products and companies are those that
contextualize the new tools within a problem of real importance

and i guess i would add to that that these new tools help us build a
world we actually want to live in !!

scott - our discussion seeks to provide concrete evidence that stem to
steam has desirable outcomes

ahead of reading your book maybe you can give us one or two really
good exemplars !!


roger malina

--
Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Roger was kind enough to suggest that I post here for all of you a
quick note about my forthcoming book with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
The Fuzzy and the Techie (Link: http://Bit.ly/FuzzyTechie). My book
looks at this faux opposition between STEM and the Liberal Arts, how
this ought to be a conversation about bringing together the "two
cultures." The terms Fuzzy and Techie are used at Stanford University
as lighthearted monikers for those who study the arts, humanities and
social sciences, and those who study the computer sciences or
engineering. Obviously though, much is shared between them.

As a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, the observation I've had is
that the best products and companies are those that contextualize the
new tools within a problem of real importance. And often the critical
self inquiry, creativity, passion, etc. to find and refine that
problem against which technology can be applied, is something
holistic, learned through broad study rather than narrow vocational
focus on the tools alone. Therefore my book argues for the vital
technical skills, but also for the breadth of exposure from the
Liberal Arts. This generally means adopting technology in the
classroom, but doing so in a blended fashion where the teacher becomes
coach, and much can be shared amongst the students.

STEAM is a perfect example of this notion of bringing together both
the fuzzy and the techie, accepting the need for technical skills but
also embracing the breadth of exposure and holistic learning from the
Liberal Arts. I wanted to share it with this community.

Moreover, as our technical tools move toward higher levels of
abstraction, closer and closer to natural language processing, and as
my engineering colleagues say, "off the metal," these broad complex
problem solving and communication skills become of vital importance,
and the the truly non-redundant human skills in an increasingly
automated world.

I welcome your thoughts and feedback, and please pre-order a copy of the book.

Scott Hartley
@scottehartley

--
Scott Hartley
The Fuzzy and the Techie (Coming April 25th!)
http://Bit.ly/FuzzyTechie

Scott Hartley is venture capitalist and author. In 2016 he was a
finalist for the Financial Times and McKinsey & Company's Bracken
Bower Prize for the best business book proposal by an author under 35.
He has served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow at the White House,
a Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV), and a Venture Partner at
Metamorphic Ventures. Prior to venture capital, Scott worked at
Google, Facebook, and Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
He has been a contributing author at MIT Press, and has written for
the Financial Times, Forbes, Inc., Foreign Policy, and the Boston
Review. He holds three degrees from Stanford and Columbia, has
finished six marathon and Ironman 70.3 triathlons. He is a Term Member
at the Council on Foreign Relations,

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/