Both David Epstein–an expert in work design–and Herbert A. Simon–1978 Nobel Prize Winner for Economics–argue that work can be done more productively if we focus on how we do the work. Constraints, Epstein insists, can make the U.S. better. I remember taking a Psychology class in college where the professor told the class: “If you want to create a monster, just tell your child to do anything they want.”

Diane and I didn’t have a lot of rules for Patrick and Katie, but the rules we imposed we were strict about. Our key rules were: Don’t tell lies, Don’t steal, and Don’t cheat. We told our kids that if they did those things, they wouldn’t have any friends.

Diane and I also tried to model behavior for Patrick and Katie. Every night, we would all sit around the dining room table and do school work. Diane did her correcting of student papers, I did my lectures for the next day’s classes, and Patrick and Katie either did homework or read books. I think these good work habits carried over to our kids’ success in college and their careers.

Organization is another word for constraints. Both Epstein and Simon have worked with Artificial Intelligence and suggest models that might be used to integrate AI into the work flow.

Work environments will change radically in the years ahead. Inside the Box and Models of My Life provide insights into what the Future may look like. GRADE: A (for both books)

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction: A Textbook Case of Discovery — xiii

PART I: HOW BOUNDARIES CREATE BREAKTHROUGHS

1. A World Without Limits — 1
2. A World With Limits — 15
3. Limit-Powered Learning — 33

PART II: CREATIVE CONSTRAINTS

INTERLUDE 1 — 47

4. The Green Eggs and Ham Effect — 51

5. Building a New Box — 71

6. The Remix of Everything — 87

PART III: WHERE (AND HOW) TO FOCUS

INTERLUDE 2 — 111

7. Designing for Constraints — 115

8. Widen the Bottleneck — 129

9. One Thing at a Time — 147

PART IV: COLLABORATION AND CONTENTMENT

INTERLUDE 3 — 171

10. The Rules of the Game — 175

11. Framing for Invention — 197

12. Maximizing by Satisfying — 213

Acknowledgements — 237

Notes — 241

Index — 265

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

PREFACE TO THE SERIES — xi Acknowledgements — xiii Introduction — xvii Prologue — xxiii The Boy in Wisconsin — 1 Forests and Fields	24
Education in Chicago	36
Encounter with a Scientific Revolution:
Political Science at Chicago	55
THE SECOND PANEL	67
A Taste of Research: The City Manager’s Association	69
Managing Research: Berkeley	78
Teaching at Illinois Tech	93
A Matter of Loyalty	117
Building a Business School: The Graduate School of Industrial Administration	135
Research and Science Politics	161
Mazes Without Minotaurs Roots of Artificial Intelligence Climbing the Mountain Artificial Intelligence Achieved — 198 Exploring the Plain — 217	175 189

Personal Threads in the Warp	235
Creating a University Environment for Cognitive Science and Α Ι	248
On Being Argumentative	269
The Student Troubles	279
The Scientist as Politician	290
Foreign Adventures	305
THE FOURTH PANEL RESEARCH AFTER SIXTY	317
From Nobel to Now	319

The Amateur Diplomat in China and the Soviet Union	335
Guides for Choice	360
The Scientist as Problem Solver	368
References	389
Index	401