Howard Gardner

I didn't really find the conclusion convincing, and thought the inclusion of Martha Graham and Ghandi was less than helpful. Ghandi doesn't seem to fit into the narrative as well as the first 3 cases, and Graham's section was awkward since her work could not really be well described in print. Her chapter seemed underdeveloped as a result. I also had issues with the gender aspect of these cases, though Gardner does try to address gender. I wished that this set of cases had included someone along the lines of Andre Norton or Agatha Christie, women whose work could have been more easily discussed in print. Still, this was an interesting read, and offers some insight on creativity, even if I would have designed the project a little differently.… (more)

I first heard about Gardner's book while reading another book. Gardner was often quoted in the book Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives (0046442072434)by Louise Desalvo. Because of her references I found myself excited about ordering Creating Minds as the next read.

Gardner's book is an important book as he looks at the lives of seven great creators within the Modern Period and their similarities and differences. It is however a very different approach from Desalvo's book. At first I was disappointed because I expected writing more in the vein of Desalvo's. Gardner's approach was analytical rather than writing to encourage personal exploration. Once getting past that (and understanding Gardner's focus on the theory of Multiple Intelligences) I could appreciate it from an educator's point of view.

His summaries of the creators Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi was phenomenal. While I understand his premise, I'm not sure I agree with his conclusions. Perhaps this was because my original hope was to use the book to inspire my own creative mind. As a reader who is 50 years of age, his conclusions came across rather discouraging since he focuses on successful creators making contributions in their twenties.… (more)

(213) Gardner and Davis, both highly-respected researchers, begin a compelling argument that today's students are looking for an "app"-geared approach to life: a search for the easiest way to get things done. "Appification" can help students harness creative and intellectual powers, but it can also push students into a mindset that only the path with the least friction and highest efficiency matters, an "end justifies the mean" approach that means students may be looking more for the grade and less for the experience, for example. Building on their own experiences as well as those of Davis's sister (a tri-generational approach), their core argument is powerful. The book alludes to their extensive research, but, perhaps in an effort to create a book that is more "readable" than academic, does not delve deeply into it. The authors know so much about this topic that I am looking forward to further insights as they drill down deeper in future works.

First came the telephone, then the television, then the Internet, and now the app. Apps are designed to make a task simpler, a search faster, or a day timelier. But what happens when apps pervade a society? At what level to automated programs change the people using them? Young people today between the ages of 15 and 25 have a hard time recalling a world without electronic devices, without smartphones, or without the Internet. Howard Gardner and Katie Davis, in The App Generation, tackle the subject and along the way, learn about the fundamental social and moral landscape of a generation raised in the digital age.

Gardner and Davis focus their attention on what they call the three I’s: identity, intimacy, and imagination. In the digital world, identity is fully customizable and can be carefully constructed by what the user posts in online forums and image galleries. Intimacy is gauged by how users interact or nurture their social connections online. Lastly, imagination is just that, but it is also measured by how different relationships and creations are viewed online. Their research integrates psychological, sociological, and philosophical studies to get at just how apps are interacting with individuals and even society as a whole. Many different angles are taken in their investigation, including focus groups and online messages.

For the most past, the authors get at what they are looking for: a better picture of how the current generation views the world through apps and what that means for the future of society. There a few times when a one-off comment is seen as an indicator for a whole group, but the discussion of the “app attitude” is fun and pertinent. While I was drawn more to the comments from individual Internet content creators, the dual fields of computer science and psychology definitely keep this book in the academics’ arena. It reads fairly quickly and has a good amount of statistics about today’s app users. An interesting but not outstanding book.
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This book was not an easy read, in fact, early on I was wondering whether to finish it. I'm glad that I persisted and finished it because, although the author tries hard not to force his opinions on us, it does turn out that he has an opinion. He just wants us to keep going beyond his ideas and find our own applications. He is also very clear that intelligence and morality should not be confounded. Intelligence can be used for moral or immoral purposes. The intelligence is indifferent to how it is applied. That alone makes the book worth reading. There are a few things from the book that are worth mentioning.

"But wisdom is not a predictable feature of aging; many old people do not show particular range in reaching their judgements, and certainly some young people are wise beyond their years. The historian George Kennan and the philosopher Isaiah Berlin did not suddenly become wise when they entered their eighth or ninth decade, and fortunately for them and us, their skill at synthesizing did not decline noticeably with age." (Page 133)

"A crucial point about wisdom is its modesty, its humility. Neither intelligence nor creativity nor leadership reserveds a place for silence, for quite, for resignation. ... The wise person knows when to say nothing, and when to step down and make room for someone else. The wise adult knows about the fraility of humanity and the difficulty of bringing about enduring changes." (Page 134)

"When someone hears or observes the responses of others, particularly those at a higher stage, their own thinking may become more complex and rich." (Page 189) This reminded me of [b:Flow|66354|Flow|Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170649609s/66354.jpg|64339] which emphasizes the importance of increasing levels of complexity for happiness.

And why is the author so modest about forcing his views on us: "Unfortunately, we don't know a lot about the personal intelligences." (Page 201) Ultimately, we all have a lot to learn, and this book emphasizes that the quick application of Multiple Intelligence theory is liable to be a misapplication. Gardner advocates avoiding simplistic application of what we only vaguely understand, and striving for a deeper understanding.… (more)