This week on Here’s What We Know, our guest is Grace Hawthorne, a multifaceted entrepreneur, innovator, educator, and author of the book “Make Possibilities Happen: How to Transform Ideas into Reality.” As the CEO/Founder of Paper Punk and an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University’s renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (aka the d.school), Grace shares her journey through entrepreneurship, education, and scientific research on creativity.
This episode is sponsored by:
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In this Episode:
- The Importance of Practicality and Wisdom
- The Value of Experience and Appreciating Different Perspectives
- The Importance of Putting in the Work
- The Duchamp Exercise and Thinking Outside the Box
- The See, Start, Do, and Finish Process
- The Unlimited Capacity for Creativity
- The Role of Vision in the Creative Process
- The Journey of Paper Punk
- The Importance of Adaptability and Flexibilty
- The Value of Learning from Others
- The Creativity Study and the Role of Curiosity
- The Power of Wisdom and Experience
- The Significance of Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom
- The Value of Listening and Understanding
- Appreciating Parent as a Parent
- Parenting Challenges
- The Pride of Parenting and the Joy of Grandparenting
Quotations:
“The whole mission of the D School at Stanford is that it’s a place of innovation. And when we say design, it’s not a matter of aesthetics. It’s a matter of problem-solving. So we’re there trying to transform students. to have this ability to solve the world’s messy problem.” ~ Grace Hawthorne
“You don’t know until you know.” ~ Grace Hawthorne
“So what we know is biased. We’re biased to what we know. And what we know is based on our contacts, our experiences, everything that’s happened to us.” ~ Grace Hawthorne
“So we kind of have to let go a little bit of what we know to open our lens to more possibilities.” ~ Grace Hawthorne
“Technically, we all have unlimited gas for our brain. If you use creativity, if creativity is the gas to our brain, we all have an unlimited supply.” ~ Grace Hawthorne
“We all have a thousand amazing ideas, but what creates real value is when the rubber meets the road and the person who actually does something about that idea to try to make it happen.” ~ Grace Hawthorne
“It’s everything large and small and you’ve gotta start somewhere.” ~ Grace Hawthorne
“We have this vision of where we want to go. Don’t hang on to it so tightly, because something might happen along the way that might be here. And it might lead you to something even more incredible than what you would imagine for yourself.” ~ Grace Hawthorne
“I think these days people think that information is knowledge. It’s not!” ~ Grace Hawthorne
“Life is stranger than fiction.” ~ Grace Hawthorne
Bio:
Grace Hawthorne is an entrepreneur, artist, author, and educator. She is the founder and CEO of Paper Punk, an award-winning origami and LEGO mashup, and d.school professor, where she teaches courses on creativity and failure and capacity building, covered by Scientific American and Wired magazine. Previously, she cofounded ReadyMade and co-authored the critically acclaimed book by the same name. Her artwork has been exhibited in several national museums, including the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Triennial. The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, known as the d.school, was founded at Stanford University in 2005. Each year, nearly a thousand students from all disciplines attend classes, workshops, and programs to learn how the thinking behind design can enrich their own work and unlock their creative potential.
Guest Contact Info:
Paperpunk Website: https://paperpunk.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracehawthorne/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_graciemade/