Book cover of Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life

Book description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • At last, a book that shows you how to build—design—a life you can thrive in, at any age or stage • “Life has questions. They have answers.” —The New York Times

Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Look around your…

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Why read it?

3 authors picked Designing Your Life as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Based on Stanford’s popular design thinking course, this book teaches readers how to approach life decisions the way designers approach creative problems, through prototyping, experimentation, and curiosity.

Instead of suggesting that people must choose one perfect path, Burnett and Evans help readers test ideas, explore possibilities, and build lives that fit their values and strengths. 

I first encountered design thinking while founding a community nonprofit, and it changed the way I supported students. This book gives language and structure to something I encourage all young people to do: try things, follow your curiosity, and gather real-world data about what brings…

From Paris' list on designing a meaningful life.

“Design thinking” is a phrase that’s become more common over the last ten years but it’s still mostly the domain of innovation and the startup world.

So when designers Bill Burnett and Dave Evans brought this way of thinking to tackle the question of designing a life of fulfillment and joy, it offered a truly fresh perspective. Experimentation, prototyping, constant iteration. These are the tools that allow you to learn and tinker and adjust as you go, ensuring the only true failure is settling for unhappiness. 

Burnett and Evans are innovators and Stanford University design educators who created a hugely successful course, Designing Your Life. They have helped thousands of people change the way they think and live.  

As the head of talent development for a Fortune 5 company, I would take leaders on immersion site visits to companies like Google, Apple, and HP and universities like Stanford and MIT to learn how to think like a designer. This helped my leaders develop products and services that customers craved. Designing Your Life shows you how to apply design thinking principles to career development.

Use this book…

From Ted's list on managing your career.

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These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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