The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Nature of Economies’

I am reading The Nature of Economiesby Jane Jacobs as background research for a paper that I am writing for Infed.org. Jacobs was an urban philosopher and visionary.

I have pulled five ideas from the book, and attempt to show how readers might apply the information to their work and life. I am sure that you could come up with better applications for these ideas.

The “Knowledge Age” is going to become the Lost-Age unless preserving specimens of work is taken as seriously as preserving apples and beans




Thousands of years ago, people were combining materials and devices that were radically different to form something new




People are naturally creative




People do not need to be geniuses or even extraordinarily talented to develop their work, they only need to be resourceful and show initiative




Know thyself…We learn about ourselves by learning about others and how we relate to them

Idea 1

How do you preserve your family’s history and stories? Have you been recording them for your children? Within the organization, what are you doing to record the knowledge that is in the older worker’s head?

Idea 2

How might you combine two good products that are very different, to create an extraordinary one? How might you combine a very different process in another industry with one in yours to create an entirely new way of doing things?

Idea 3

 In what ways can you exercise your natural creativity to positively impact your financial situation? How might you use your creativity to develop a new process, model or product to contribute to your organization’s bottom line

Idea 4

 In what ways could you develop the work you do by simply giving it some serious thought. What resources available to you could you use? If you systematically thought through your work process, how might you improve it? What inefficiencies could you remove or how could you expand your work?

Idea 5

When was the last time you had a meaningful conversation with someone who was very different from yourself? If you have, what insights did you glean, and what did you learn about yourself?

These are five ways that you can connect new information to what you already know. What other ways could you connect these ideas?