Clive Thompson In Ten Minutes

The School of Visual Arts has a new program offering a MFA in Interaction Design. The program markets itself as “training students to research, analyze, prototype, and design concepts in their business, social, and cultural contexts.” Honestly, I am excited for the program and the faculty round up is impressive.

In an effort to continually promote the program and feed the the NYC community there’s a monthly lecture series. November was a focus on sketching and this months topic was “The Interviewer.” There were four speakers given ten minutes to present about interviewing:

• Gary Hustwit, Director, Helvetica, Objectified
• Jason Severs, Principal Designer, frog design
• Clive Thompson, Contributing Writer for New York Times Magazine and columnist for Wired magazine
• Elisabeth M. De Morentin, Illinois Institute of Technology, Institute of Design

What I found interesting and useful were the ten minutes offered by Clive Thompson. His talk was sharp and, thankfully, on topic. If you’re not familiar with Clive, check out his New York times article ( one million dollar NetFlix prize for solving the recommendation engine’s “Napoleon Dynamite” dilemma ) :

If You Liked This, You’re Sure to Love That

He explained his professional focus is rarely on the specific success of innovators (”that’s not interesting”) but really what took place before the “break through.” He wants to understand what they didn’t know and how they got there.

So he strives to grasp the process and the thoughts through all of the things that didn’t work. He mentioned some terms for further thought like “linear order” and “genius thinking.” It is the “state of absence and failure” that drives Clive’s interviewing and writing.

For me, there’s a great deal going on here that can benefit those of us interested in design thinking and innovation.

In just ten minutes, Clive provided us with valuable insight for improving the process of gathering data during interviews and reminded me to remain intrigued on not the results but the process.

Resonated quite a bit with my fixation with Pixar … I like watching the behind the scenes of their amazing creative process maybe even just as much as experiencing the movie.