Good and plenty

We have lots of stuff. It took creative people to make all the stuff we have. Creative people make stuff that hasn't ever been made before. Or at least that's what Rich Gold says .

Gold calls our stuff-filled world the Plenitude in his wonderful little book of the same name. "How many things are there in an average room ... say my kitchen? I can easily count a thousand, but the actual number is fractal."

I don't know if the Plenitude is a good thing or not, but I do know that The Plenitude is. It's a wonderful read if you have any interest at all in art or science or design or engineering or creativity or innovation or the morality of our material culture or managing any of those people or processes.

Creative Persons

Where did all that stuff come from, and why? Gold sees it as the result of 2 forces: creation and consumption. It is both because "there is great pleasure and desire in both."

Artists, scientists, designers and engineers -- "the four professions that collectively have created about 95 percent of the Plenitude." Each is the subject of some interesting analysis early in the book.

People usually think of art and science as very different from each other, maybe even in opposition. One is right-brained, one is left (although to be honest, I can never remember which is which).

We also tend to think of designers and engineers as quite different from each other, and sometimes as the practical versions of art and science, respectively. Artist:Designer::Scientist:Engineer

Gold, however, sees artists and scientists as more similar to each other than each is to the practical disciplines of design and engineering . They, the artists and scientist, are both visionaries. These are people whose work begins with a vision, which may or may not be useful or desirable to anyone. Designers and engineers are also similar to each other. They are people who create for the sake of other people. "It's not good design or engineering unless other humans like it, buy it, use it. It is irrelevant whether it satisfies its creator's vision."

Creative Patterns

Gold's real focus, though, isn't the people who create but the patterns of creation that he saw while working at, among other places, Mattel (yes, the toy manufacturer) and Xerox PARC.

He identifies 7 patterns of innovation or creation, which I would summarize as follows (follow the links to Computerworld's book excerpt to read more):

1. Solving problems
2. The vision thing
3. Derivation from BIG ideas
4. Realizing the future
5. Colonization
6. Versioning
7. Changing the definition

Each pattern can result in new things, but each can also introduce its own sort of problem. For example, the automobile solved the problem of horse manure. It solved it very well. But, of course, it has brought its own problems: "air pollution, gridlock, the destruction of the center of our cities, parking lots, reliance on foreign oil, global warming, war, and, possibly, the end of the world." The problem with versioning is that stuff becomes more complex.

Gold isn't overly rigid about any of this. "So those are the seven patterns. Certainly others come to mind, but seven is a good number. ... Together, they are fabulous at making new stuff and the result is the Plenitude around us."   It's such a pleasant change of pace to read an author who is not an ideologue.

Gold recognizes two common reactions: One group of readers embraces the form and substance of the plenitude while the other  group is horrified by it. The first may start new businesses to make more stuff for the plenitude. The other may start a new recycling program.

The nice thing about Gold is that he's not in either in camp, or maybe he's in both. "It's not just readers who are divided; I am too. But then I remember that there is no place to stand without contradiction, either inside or outside the Plenitude." It's a tone that carries through the book. You know you are in the hands of someone willing to think deeply and clearly and without prejudice; someone willing to consider a new or even opposed view with all the charity and consideration it deserves.

The last section of the book presents the problems of the Plenitude. For example, "The Plenitude may very well destroy the world." We could use up all the resources or we could blow ourselves up with such creations as our nuclear bombs. And, of course, the section also considers some solutions: just make the good stuff; switch to a zero-growth economy; reverse population growth. Or listen to Stu Card: "We should be careful to make the world we actually want to live in."

Some books are so good that you know you'll read them again, and you know this by the time you finish. With this book, I knew by page 25. I wrote this review as a justification to start over again as soon as I finished.

It's only about 100 pages and it has pictures. Enjoy it early and often.

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