What A Great Idea

What a Great Idea! instructs readers on how to challenge and defeat widely held notions that stifle creativity. Based on his hugely successful seminars, Chic Thompson, one of the country's leading students of the creative process, promotes aggressive and visionary thinking and unleashes readers' creative processes.

Today the classics of the western canon, written by the proverbial ''dead white men,'' are cannon fodder in the culture wars. But in the 1950s and 1960s, they were a pop culture phenomenon. The Great Books of Western Civilization, fifty-four volumes chosen by intellectuals at the University of Chicago, began as an educational movement, and evolved into a successful marketing idea. Why did a million American households buy books by Hippocrates and Nicomachus from door-to-door salesmen? And how and why did the great books fall out of fashion? In A Great Idea at the Time Alex Beam explores the Great Books mania, in an entertaining and strangely poignant portrait of American popular culture on the threshold of the television age. Populated with memorable characters, A Great Idea at the Time will leave readers asking themselves: Have I read Lucretius's De Rerum Natura lately? If not, why not?

All Groan Up: Searching for Self, Faith, and A Freaking Job! is the story of the GenY/Millennial generation told through the individual story of author Paul Angone. It’s a story of struggle, hope, failure, and doubts in the twilight zone of growing up and being grown, connecting with his twentysomething post-college audience with raw honesty, humor, and hope.

Since 2010, Toronto's headlines have been consumed by the outrageous personal foibles and government-slashing, anti-urbanist policies of Mayor Rob Ford. But the heated debate at City Hall has obscured a bigger, decade-long narrative of Toronto's ascendance as a mature global city. Some Great Idea traces how post-amalgamation, and under three very different mayors, Toronto managed to so quickly oscillate from one extreme to another, and how the city might proceed from here. Some Great Idea includes behind-the-scenes tales from the Miller and Ford campaigns, and explores recent turning points like the city's core service review and the mayor’s con?ict-of-interest trial. Through personal history, keen reportage and revelatory analysis, it shows how the fundamental principles of diversity and democracy that have made Toronto such a vibrant, dynamic 21st-century city can produce an unlikely politician like Ford. And how those same principles have vividly and repeatedly insisted that such politicians are only part of a larger, messier and more productive urban politics. This is a story about both Toronto's past and present, how the city has relentlessly and collaboratively reinvented itself. But it's also a story about Toronto's future, and what that future might mean for all global cities. This is a story that says you can ?ght city hall. Edward Keenan serves as senior editor and lead columnist at The Grid magazine in Toronto, Ontario. An eight-time finalist at the National Magazine Awards, he has written for and edited at Eye Weekly, Spacing magazine, and The Walrus.

Proven pathways for taking ideas to implementation We all have ideas—things we want to do or create—but only some of us will do what it takes to see those ideas come to pass. In Good Idea. Now What? readers will discover some of the essential values and principles that guide successful idea-makers, including the leveraging of mixed environments for creativity, working through resistance and setbacks, developing a practical plan for implementation that works, navigating collaborative opportunities, and communicating your idea to make it truly remarkable. Whether you're just a creative type, or the leader of an organization, you must figure out a creative process and develop an infrastructure for implementing your ideas. Good Idea. Now What? offers systematic advice for moving your ideas to execution. It will show you: The fundamental elements of a good idea Tangible pathways to follow after initial inspiration The importance of branding and its impact on ideas Practical advice for developing a loyal tribe of supporters who will take your idea to a whole new level It's not enough to be inspired. Learn how to follow through on your ideas and discover how great an impact you can have!

Explains how to turn your ideas, invention or business concept into a profitable success, and explains how to evaluate market response, production planning, pricing, sales, distribution and more.

It has sold more than 200,000 copies since 1992--and now the most imaginative guide to thinking creatively is back, in a new and improved version. Author Chic Thompson knows that everyone wants to be more creative--and he knows how to make it possible. That’s why the Harvard Business School released a case study on him. Thompson has had unparalleled success teaching readers how to harness their ingenuity to generate new product ideas, resolve difficulties in the workplace, and overcome bureaucratic language and "killer phrases” that stifle innovation. The good news is that this great-looking, thoroughly updated edition features even more brain-stimulating suggestions, exercises, action sheets, tips for using new technologies, ideas for encouraging creativity at home, and much more.

After launching a computer dating service, Husch established a vineyard in California and then marketed candy to natural food stores. In this guide for potential entrepreneurs, he and Foust, who practices business law in San Francisco, explain how to get, evaluate, protect, develop and sell new products. The bulk of the book is devoted to brainstorming techniques and exercises, including such approaches as ``revive an old-fashioned food,'' ``put an existing product to another use'' and ``create a safety device.'' They also cover market research, testing, financial feasibility, patents, copyright and trademarks. A lengthy ``resource guide'' lists publications, associations, newsletters, small business development centers, government agencies and federal patent depository libraries, along with sample forms for confidentiality and licensing agreements. (August) Publisher's Weekly.