Lars Pind is an entrepreneur in the Copenhagen Internet business climate. A force to reckon with, he founded the company Collaboraid, which won the Startup of the Year award at the conference reboot 6 in 2003. Their website’s jobs section has interesting literature tips:
> These books are considered required reading, because they
> explain the values that we believe in and work by.
>
> **The
> inmates are running the asylum** by Alan Cooper because we want
> to make people happy, not make them feel stupid.
>
> **Visual
> Explanations** by Edward Tufte, because we like being easy to
> comprehend.
After reading that, I went to the Royal Library’s homepage, found both books, booked the first one (I’ll get it later this year, perhaps coinciding with a period of time when I have the time to read things!), and saw that Tufte’s book was for reading in the Royal Library only. Cool, sitting in the Black Diamond, reading design philosophy. I could get used to that.
Click the image too see fancy shots of the Black Diamond.
Both Tufte and the Black Diamond rock! Autumn and I skulked around in there – it was a pilgrimage.
In a similar vein I recommend Christopher Alexander’s A PATTERN LANGUAGE and, perhaps even more obliquely, Stewart Brand’s HOW BUILDINGS LEARN.
I started reading a chunk of my copy of A Pattern Language the other day. Its chapter on design for pubs is brilliant.
When I was through reading that, I turned the page and saw their gushing thoughts on how motels should be turned into travellers’ inns. The picture was of men from the 1700s smoking pipe in front of a huge fireplace. From the ceiling: smoked ham.
Extra bonus: A Pattern Language for the busy executive. Just the “chunks”, not the infilling detail. Good for refreshing your pattern remembrance.