Warren Berger (born October 20, 1958) is an American journalist and author. He has written five books (two as co-authors) and numerous articles, primarily on design, mass media, and popular culture.[1][2]
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Questions Are the New Answers, with Warren Berger
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Warren Berger - A More Beautiful Question
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CUSP 2013 / Warren Berger
Transcription
You know, the idea that questions are becoming more valuable than answers it seems kind of counterintuitive, but it's actually an idea that's being really embraced these days in Silicon Valley and other areas of other centers of innovation. And the reason why is if you look at a lot of the innovations and breakthroughs today and you trace them back, as I did in my research, to their origin, a lot of times what you find at the root of it all is a great question; a beautiful question of someone asking why isn't someone doing this or what if someone tried to do that? So I found that questions are often at the root of innovation. And that's why in Silicon Valley these days they're actually saying questions are the new answers. But at the same time it's important to note that questions aren't just important to innovators or tech people, they're a survival skill for all of us. And that becomes even more true in a time of dynamic change. I mean we've got so much that we have to adapt to. We have to solve problems. We have to deal with change, uncertainty and questioning is the tool or one of the primary tools that lets you do that. A great definition I saw for questioning is that questioning enables us to organize our thinking around what we don't know. So in a time when so much knowledge is all around us, answers are at our fingertips, we really need great questions in order to be able to know what to do with all that information and find our way to the next answer. If you look at the research, a four-year-old girl is asking like as much as 300 questions a day. And when kids go into school you see this steady decline that happens as they go through the grade levels to the point where questioning in schools, by junior high school, is almost at zero. There are a lot of reasons why questioning declines as we get older. But one of the key issues is that in schools we really value the answers. And there is almost no value placed on asking a good question. In fact, the teachers now are so stressed to teach to the test and to cover so much material that they really can't even entertain a lot of questions even if they want to. So it becomes a real problem in our school system, in our education system. I think people are starting to address it, try to deal with it. In my research I found a number of teachers, schools that are trying to place more emphasis on questioning. I came upon a great nonprofit group, the Right Question Institute, that has developed a whole system of class exercises that are just focused on encouraging kids to ask as many questions as possible, just formulate questions and think in questions. And that's kind of the direction we need to move in. It's simply a matter of finding ways within the school system to allow and encourage kids to think of their own questions.
Early life and education
Warren Berger grew up in Whitestone, New York, as the youngest of seven siblings. He graduated from Syracuse University's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in 1980.[3]
Career
After working as a newspaper journalist in Dallas, Texas, Berger moved back to New York and worked for several years as a magazine editor for CBS.
In 1990, Berger began writing independently and went on to publish a number of pieces in The New York Times and other publications. He wrote a business column for the Sunday Times[1] and regularly contributed culture articles to the Arts & Leisure section and The New York Times Magazine.[1] GQ, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Reader’s Digest, and Business 2.0 all featured Berger's writing, and he served as a contributing editor at Wired magazine from 1999 to 2001.[1]
Berger pursued his interest in advertising by writing articles for Ad Age’s Creativity, Communication Arts, Graphics, and Metropolis. In the mid-1990s, he formed an association with The One Club for Art & Copy, helping them launch the bimonthly publication ONE, about creativity in advertising, and then in 2007 launching the quarterly One: Design. In 2001, he wrote his first book, "Advertising Today", published by Phaidon Press. The book was included on Barnes & Noble’s best books of the year list and was later included in a list of the “50 all time best books about media” compiled by The Independent of London.[citation needed]
He is the host of the website "AMoreBeautifulQuestion.com."[4] Questioning is the topic of his two most recent books, The Book of Beautiful Questions (2018) and A More Beautiful Question (2014), both published by Bloomsbury.
Bibliography
Nonfiction
- The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead (2018; Bloomsbury Publishing) (ISBN 978-1632869562)
- A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas (2014; Bloomsbury Publishing) (ISBN 978-1620401453)
- CAD Monkeys, Dinosaur Babies, and T-Shaped People: Inside the World of Design Thinking and How It Can Spark Creativity and Innovation (2010; Penguin) (ISBN 978-0143118022) U.S. paperback edition of Glimmer
- Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life and Maybe Even the World. Featuring the ideas and wisdom of design visionary Bruce Mau. (2009; The Penguin Press) (ISBN 978-1594202339)
- Nextville: Amazing Places to Live the Rest of Your Life (2008; Springboard Press); co-author with Barbara Corcoran (ISBN 978-0446178280)
- Hoopla: Crispin Porter + Bogusky (2007; PowerHouse Books) (ISBN 978-1576873120)
- No Opportunity Wasted: 8 Ways to Create a List for the Life You Want (2004; Rodale); co-author with Phil Keoghan of The Amazing Race (ISBN 978-1594864049)
- Advertising Today (2001; Phaidon Press) (ISBN 978-0714843872)
Fiction
- The Purples (2010; Ringer Books) (ISBN 978-0-615-23170-9)
Anthology
- The Best Business Stories of the Year (2001; Pantheon) (ISBN 978-0375725005)
Notes
- ^ a b c d "Page Not Found". Retrieved 2 February 2018.
{{cite web}}
: Cite uses generic title (help) - ^ "Warren Berger - Books". www.warrenberger.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-25.
- ^ "Q&A with Warren Berger '80" (PDF). Syracuse University Magazine. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
- ^ "About Warren Berger and AMoreBeautiful Question.com". Retrieved 12 November 2018.