Started: June 13, 2012
Finished: not yet. :) 100 pages to go.
Subtitled: "How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything"
Recommended For: new grads, people seeking new direction in their careers, educators
My introduction to Ken Robinson came through Youtube videos, such as this (amazing) mind-mapped video on "Changing Education Paradigms" and this TED talk, asking, "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"
If you're familiar with these videos (and others), then much of the first 30+ pages of The Element is going to read like a repeat of information you've heard before. If you're looking for an inpsirational gift, however--for yourself or someone else--this will likely do the trick.
Robinson subdivides "the element" (that place/space/state of mind where passion lives and comes alive) into four features/conditions:
1. Aptitude (I get it)
2. Passion (I love it)
3. Attitude (I want it)
4. Opportunity (Where is it?)
Educators will appreciate this book because it focuses on all kinds of "smart." Robinson encourages readers to ask not "How intelligent are you?" but "How are you intelligent?"
Creative types will enjoy Robinson's descriptions of "the zone" and the importance of "finding your tribe."
